David Hume Quotes

A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow real poverty.

Nothing appears more surprising to those, who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission, with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers.

If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion."

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.

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.

Liberty of any kind is never lost all at once.

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.

It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom.

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.

A purpose, an intention, a design, strikes everywhere even the careless, the most stupid thinker.

All that belongs to human understanding, in this deep ignorance and obscurity, is to be sceptical, or at least cautious, and not to admit of any hypothesis whatever, much less of any which is supported by no appearance of probability.

Custom is the great guide to human life.

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.

And what is the greatest number? Number one.

What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call 'thought'.

Men often act knowingly against their interest.

The law always limits every power it gives.

It is... a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.

It is seldom that any liberty is lost all at once.

Where ambition can cover its enterprises, even to the person himself, under the appearance of principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible of passions

Art may make a suite of clothes, but nature must produce a man.

Avarice, the spur of industry.

The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness. For this were arts invented, sciences cultivated, laws ordained, and societies modeled, by the most profound wisdom of patriots and legislators. Even the lonely savage, who lies exposed to the inclemency of the elements and the fury of wild beasts, forgets not, for a moment, this grand object of his being.

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.