Men often act knowingly against their interest.
David Hume
That the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will rise.
David Hume
Scholastic learning and polemical divinity retarded the growth of all true knowledge.
David Hume
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.
David Hume
Philosophy would render us entirely Pyrrhonian, were not nature too strong for it.
David Hume
Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.
David Hume
Nothing endears so much a friend as sorrow for his death. The pleasure of his company has not so powerful an influence.
David Hume
Men are much oftener thrown on their knees by the melancholy than by the agreeable passions.
David Hume
No advantages in this world are pure and unmixed.
David Hume
The advantages found in history seem to be of three kinds, as it amuses the fancy, as it improves the understanding, and as it strengthens virtue.
David Hume
There is a very remarkable inclination in human nature to bestow on external objects the same emotions which it observes in itself, and to find every where those ideas which are most present to it.
David Hume
No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish.
David Hume
The chief benefit, which results from philosophy, arises in an indirect manner, and proceeds more from its secret, insensible influence, than from its immediate application.
David Hume
The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one.
David Hume
The corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst.
David Hume
The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny.
David Hume
The law always limits every power it gives.
David Hume
The rules of morality are not the conclusion of our reason.
David Hume
It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom.
David Hume
There is not to be found, in all history, any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men, of such unquestioned good sense, education and learning, as to secure us against all delusion in themselves.
David Hume
This avidity alone, of acquiring goods and possessions for ourselves and our nearest friends, is insatiable, perpetual, universal, and directly destructive of society.
David Hume
To be a philosophical sceptic is, in a man of letters, the first and most essential to being a sound, believing Christian.
David Hume
To hate, to love, to think, to feel, to see; all this is nothing but to perceive.
David Hume
Truth springs from argument amongst friends.
David Hume
What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call ‘thought’.
David Hume
The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.
David Hume
Any person seasoned with a just sense of the imperfections of natural reason, will fly to revealed truth with the greatest avidity.
David Hume
A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.
David Hume
A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow real poverty.
David Hume
A purpose, an intention, a design, strikes everywhere even the careless, the most stupid thinker.
David Hume
A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.
David Hume
It’s when we start working together that the real healing takes place… it’s when we start spilling our sweat, and not our blood.
David Hume
And what is the greatest number? Number one.
David Hume
It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.
David Hume
Avarice, the spur of industry.
David Hume
Be a philosopher but, amid all your philosophy be still a man.
David Hume
Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.
David Hume
Beauty is no quality in things themselves. It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them.
David Hume
Beauty, whether moral or natural, is felt, more properly than perceived.
David Hume
Human Nature is the only science of man; and yet has been hitherto the most neglected.
David Hume
Accuracy is, in every case, advantageous to beauty, and just reasoning to delicate sentiment. In vain would we exalt the one by depreciating the other.
David Hume
Belief is nothing but a more vivid, lively, forcible, firm, steady conception of an object, than what the imagination alone is ever able to attain.
David Hume
It is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger.
David Hume
I have written on all sorts of subjects… yet I have no enemies; except indeed all the Whigs, all the Tories, and all the Christians.
David Hume
Heaven and hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and the bad. But the greatest part of mankind float betwixt vice and virtue.
David Hume
He is happy whom circumstances suit his temper; but he Is more excellent who suits his temper to any circumstance.
David Hume
Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.
David Hume
Everything in the world is purchased by labor.
David Hume
Every wise, just, and mild government, by rendering the condition of its subjects easy and secure, will always abound most in people, as well as in commodities and riches.
David Hume
Eloquence, at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection, but addresses itself entirely to the desires and affections, captivating the willing hearers, and subduing their understanding.
David Hume
Custom is the great guide to human life.
David Hume
Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principals.
David Hume
It is a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.
David Hume