Quotessence
Home / Authors / David Hume
David Hume

David Hume Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenHumansReasonMayIfsPhilosophyPassionPhilosophicalMindMoralityReligionMankindObjectsSentimentsPrinciplesVirtueWholeWorldGivingReasoning

Famous David Hume Quotes

“If suicide be supposed a crime, it is only cowardice can impel us to it. If it be no crime, both prudence and courage should engage us to rid ourselves at once of existence when it becomes a burden. It is the only way that we can then be useful to society, by setting an example which, if imitated, would preserve every one his chance for happiness in life, and would effectually free him from all danger or misery.”

IfsWayShouldChanceExistenceCrimeDangerExampleSuicideMiseryBurdenSettingSettingsPreservesCowardicePrudenceLife HappinessSetting An Example
Book:Essays: Moral, Political and Literary
Create image

“The best taxes are such as are levied upon consumptions, especially those of luxury; because such taxes are least felt by the people. They seem, in some measure, voluntary; since a man may choose how far he will use the commodity: They naturally produce sobriety and frugality, if judiciously imposed: And being confounded with the natural price of the commodity, they are scarcely perceived by the consumers. Their only disadvantage is that they are expensive in the levying.”

PeopleIfsMenMayUseSeemsFeltNaturalProduceTaxesLuxuryConsumersExpensiveConsumptionCommodityDisadvantagesSobrietyFrugality
Book:The philosophical works of David Hume
Create image

“If nature has been frugal in her gifts and endowments, there is the more need of art to supply her defects. If she has been generous and liberal, know that she still expects industry and application on our part, and revenges herself in proportion to our negligent ingratitude. The richest genius, like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated, shoots up into the rankest weeds; and instead of vines and olives for the pleasure and use of man, produces, to its slothful owner, the most abundant crop of poisons.”

IfsKnowsMenNeedsHas BeensArtStillsUsePleasureProduceIndustryGeniusRevengeGenerousPoisonSoilProportionOwnersWeedApplicationDefectsCropsVinesFertileOlivesIngratitudeEndowmentFrugalFertile Soil
Book:Philosophical Essays: On Morals, Literature, and Politics
Create image

“A wise man's kingdom is his own breast: or, if he ever looks farther, it will only be to the judgment of a select few, who are free from prejudices, and capable of examining his work. Nothing indeed can be a stronger presumption of falsehood than the approbation of the multitude; and Phocion, you know, always suspected himself of some blunder when he was attended with the applauses of the populace.”

IfsKnowsMenLooksWiseJudgmentCapablePrejudiceStrongerKingdomsBreastsFalsehoodMultitudesApplauseSelectExaminingBlundersPresumption
Book:The Letters of David Hume: 1727-1765
Create image

“Nothing is so convenient as a decisive argument ... which must at least silence the most arrogant bigotry and superstition, and free us from their impertinent solicitations. I flatter myself, that I have discovered an argument ... which, if just, will, with the wise and learned, be an everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusion, and consequently, will be useful as long as the world endures. For so long, I presume, will the accounts of miracles and prodigies be found in all history, sacred and profane.”

IfsWorldKindLongFoundSilenceWiseAtheismArgumentAccountsMiracleSacredEndurePositive AtheismChecksAll KindsDelusionBigotryArrogantSuperstitionsEverlastingConvenientSuperstitiousProfaneProdigiesMost ArrogantSolicitation
Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding; [with] A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh; [and] An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature
Create image

“Nothing can be more unphilosophical than to be positive or dogmatical on any subject; and even if excessive scepticism could be maintained it would not be more destructive to all just reasoning and inquiry. When men are the most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken, and have there given reins to passion, without that proper deliberation and suspense which can alone secure them from the grossest absurdities.”

IfsMenPassionGivenSubjectsSecureSuspenseReasoningDestructiveArrogantAbsurdityMistakenInquiryBeing PositiveReinsDeliberationDogmatismScepticism
Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Revision of Great Book
Create image

“All ills spring from some vice, either in ourselves or others; and even many of our diseases proceed from the same origin. Remove the vices; and the ills follow. You must only take care to remove all the vices. If you remove part, you may render the matter worse. By banishing vicious luxury, without curing sloth and an indifference to others, you only diminish industry in the state, and add nothing to men's charity or their generosity.”

IfsMenMayMatterStatesCareIndustryDiseaseSpringAddCharityVicesTake CareLuxuryGenerosityIndifferenceRemoveDiminishViciousSloth
Book:Essays, moral, political, and literary
Create image

“Riches are valuable at all times, and to all men, because they always purchase pleasures such as men are accustomed to and desire; nor can anything restrain or regulate the love of money but a sense of honor and virtue, which, if it be not nearly equal at all times, will naturally abound most in ages of knowledge and refinement.”

IfsMenAgeDesirePleasureVirtueHonorEqualValuableRichesAll TimeAccustomedRefinementLove Of Money
Book:Essays and treatises on several subjects in two volumes: Essays, moral, political, and literacy
Create image

“Nothing can be more real, or concern us more, than our own sentiments of pleasure and uneasiness; and if these be favourable to virtue and unfavourable to vice, no more can be requisite to the regulation of our conduct and behavior.”

IfsRealPleasureVirtueBehaviorConcernPhilosophicalVicesSentimentsRegulationUneasiness
Book:A Treatise on Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects; and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
Create image

“If we confine ourselves to a general and distant reflection on the ills of human life, that can have no effect to prepare us for them. If by close and intense meditation we render them present and intimate to us, that is the true secret for poisoning all our pleasures, and rendering us perpetually miserable.”

IfsLifeHumansDeathEvilPleasureSecretMeditationEffectsReflectionIntenseMiserableHuman LifeIntimateLife DeathPoisoningRenderingMiserable Life
Book:Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)
Create image

“I know with certainty, that [an honest man] is not to put his hand into the fire, and hold it there, till it be consumed: And thisevent, I think I can foretell with the same assurance, as that, if he throw himself out at the window, and meet with no obstruction, he will not remain a moment suspended in the air.”

IfsThinkingKnowsMenI CanMomentsHandsFireAirHonestWindowExperienceCertaintyAssuranceConsumedHonest ManSuspendedObstruction
Book:An Enquiry Concerning the Human Understanding: And An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
Create image

“Reasoning from the common course of nature, and without supposing any new interposition of the Supreme Cause, which ought always to be excluded from philosophy; what is incorruptible must also be ingenerable. The soul, therefore, if immortal, existed before our birth: And if the former existence noways concerned us, neither will the latter.”

IfsSoulPhilosophyCoursesCausesCommonExistenceOughtBirthConcernedSupremeFormerImmortalityReasoningLatterImmortalExcludedSupposing
Book:The Philosophical Works of David Hume ... Containing Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Essays on the Immortality of the Soul, Suicide ... &c. A New Edition
Create image

“It is evident, from their method of propagation, that a couple of cats, in fifty years, would stock a whole kingdom; and if that religious veneration were still paid them, it would, in twenty more, not only be easier in Egypt to find a god than a man, which Petronius says was the case in some parts of Italy; but the gods must at last entirely starve the men, and leave themselves neither priests nor votaries remaining.”

IfsMenYearsStillsWholeLastsReligiousCasesHe ManCoupleEasierCatPaidTwentiesMethodKingdomsFiftyPriestsEvidentEgyptVenerationPropagation
Book:A Dissertation on the Passions: The Natural History of Religion : a Critical Edition
Create image

“We can conceive a thinking being to have either many or few perceptions. Suppose the mind to be reduced even below the life of anoyster. Suppose it to have only one perception, as of thirst or hunger. Consider it in that situation. Do you conceive any thing but merely that perception? Have you any notion of self or substance? If not, the addition of other perceptions can never give you that notion.”

IfsThinkingGivingMindSelfSituationPerceptionNotionHungerSubstanceThirstOysters
Book:A Treatise of Human Nature: Illustrated
Create image

“The mention of one apartment in a building naturally introduces an enquiry or discourse concerning the others: and if we think ofa wound, we can scarcely forbear reflecting on the pain which follows it.”

IfsThinkingPainBuildingReflectionWoundsIntroducingApartmentDiscourseReflectingEnquiry
Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding; [with] A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh; [and] An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature
Create image

“[The sceptic] must acknowledge, if he will acknowledge any thing, that all human life must perish, were his principles to prevail.All discourse, all action would immediately cease, and men remain in a total lethargy, till the necessities of nature, unsatisfied, put an end to their miserable existence.”

IfsMenHumansEndsActionExistencePrinciplesCeaseMiserableHuman LifeAcknowledgeSkepticismDiscourseUnsatisfiedLethargySceptic
Book:An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion
Create image

“There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object, those qualities, with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and by a natural propensity, if not corrected by experience and reflection, ascribe malice or good-will to every thing, that hurts or pleases us.”

IfsHumansFacesNaturalHurtQualityMankindObjectsPleaseMoonReflectionConsciousUniversalArmyCloudsTendenciesProjectionGood WillMaliceTransfersPropensityHuman FacesConceivingAnthropomorphism
Book:The Natural History of Religion
Create image

“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.”

IfsDoeMatterReasonFactsHandsSchoolAsksNumbersExistenceIllusionMathematicsMathCommitInstanceMathematicalFlamesAbstractReasoningDivinityQuantityVolumeMetaphysicsMatter Of FactEnquirySophistryHume
Author:David Hume
Create image

“When anyone tells me that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself whether it be more probable that this person should either deceive or be deceived or that the fact which he relates should really have happened. I weigh the one miracle against the other and according to the superiority which I discover, I pronounce my decision. Always I reject the greater miracle. If the falsehood of his testimony would be more miraculous than the event which he relates, then and not till then, can he pretend to command my belief or opinion.”

IfsMenShouldPersonsFactsWould BeBeliefDecisionOpinionSawsGreaterHappenedEventsMiracleCommandRelateRejectsFalsehoodDeceivingSuperiorityTestimonyMiraculousDeceivedDead Man
Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Revision of Great Book
Create image

“How can we satisfy ourselves without going on in infinitum? And, after all, what satisfaction is there in that infinite progression? Let us remember the story of the Indian philosopher and his elephant. It was never more applicable than to the present subject. If the material world rests upon a similar ideal world, this ideal world must rest upon some other; and so on, without end. It were better, therefore, never to look beyond the present material world.”

IfsWorldLooksEndsStoriesRememberSubjectsMaterialsIdealsInfinitePhilosopherSatisfactionIndianElephantsProgressionCosmologyMaterial WorldIdeal World
Book:Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
Create image

“..when, in my philosophical disquisitions, I deny a providence and a future state, I undermine not the foundations of society, but advance principles, which they themselves, upon their own topics, if they argue consistently, must allow to be solid and satisfactory.”

IfsStatesPrinciplesAtheismPhilosophicalFoundationDenyArguingProvidenceConsistentlyTopicsAgnosticism
Book:Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects
Create image

“And indeed nothing but the most determined scepticism, along with a great degree of indolence, can justify this aversion to metaphysics. For if truth be at all within the reach of human capacity, it is certain it must lie very deep and abstruse: and to hope we shall arrive at it without pains, while the greatest geniuses have failed with the utmost pains, must certainly be esteemed sufficiently vain and presumptuous. I pretend to no such advantage in the philosophy I am going to unfold, and would esteem it a strong presumption against it, were it so very easy and obvious.”

IfsHumansPhilosophyPainLyingCertainStrongEasyGeniusTruth IsDegreesAdvantageCapacityPhilosophicalObviousDeterminedEsteemVainJustifyMetaphysicsVery DeepAversionPresumptionIndolenceWithout PainScepticismPresumptuousHuman Capacity
Book:A Treatise on Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects; and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
Create image

“A too great disproportion among the citizens weakens any state. Every person, if possible, ought to enjoy the fruits of his labour, in a full possession of all the necessities, and many of the conveniences of life. No one can doubt, but such an equality is most suitable to human nature, and diminishes much less from the happiness of the rich than it adds to that of the poor.”

IfsHumansPersonsStatesPoliticalEnjoyPoorRichDoubtHuman NatureOughtCitizensAddFruitPossessionLabourDiminishConvenienceSuitable
Book:Philosophical Essays: On Morals, Literature, and Politics
Create image

“It forms a strong presumption against all supernatural and miraculous relations, that they are observed chiefly to abound among ignorant and barbarous nations; or if a civilized people has ever given admission to any of them, that people will be found to have received them from ignorant and barbarous ancestors.”

PeopleIfsFormReligionFoundStrongGivenNationsRelationIgnorantCivilizedAncestorMiraculousAdmissionPresumption
Book:Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects
Create image

“And though the philosopher may live remote from business, the genius of philosophy, if carefully cultivated by several, must gradually diffuse itself throughout the whole society, and bestow a similar correctness on every art and calling.”

IfsMayArtPhilosophyWholePoliticalGeniusCallingPhilosopherCorrectness
Book:The Philosophical Works: Including All the Essays, and Exhibiting the More Important Alterations and Corrections in the Successive Ed. Publ. by the Author
Create image

“How could politics be a science, if laws and forms of government had not a uniform influence upon society? Where would be the foundation of morals, if particular characters had no certain or determinate power to produce particular sentiments, and if these sentiments had no constant operation on actions?”

IfsCharacterGovernmentWould BeActionFormLawPoliticalCertainMoralInfluenceProduceParticularMoralityEthicsFoundationConstantOperationsSentimentsUniformsForms Of Government
Book:Essays Moral, Political, and Literary
Create image

“In all determinations of morality, this circumstance of public utility is ever principally in view; and wherever disputes arise, either in philosophy or common life, concerning the bounds of duty, the questions cannot, by any means, be decided with greater certainty, than by ascertaining, on any side, the true interests of mankind. If any false opinion, embraced from appearances, has been found to prevail; as soon as farther experience and sounder reasoning have given us juster notions of human affairs, we retract our first sentiment, and adjust anew the boundaries of moral good and evil.”

IfsFirstsHumansMeanHas BeensPhilosophyEvilFoundGivenSidesInterestViewsCommonMoralOpinionGreaterMankindDutyCircumstancesMoralityEthicsDeterminationDecidedNotionBoundsAffairAppearanceBoundariesAriseCertaintyReasoningGood And EvilSentimentsDisputesUtilityCommon LifeSounder
Book:Moral and Political Philosophy
Create image

“But, historians, and even common sense, may inform us, that, however specious these ideas of perfect equality may seem, they are really, at bottom, impracticable; and were they not so, would be extremely pernicious to human society. Render possessions ever so equal, men's different degrees of art, care, and industry will immediately break that equality. Or if you check these virtues, you reduce society to the most extreme indigence; and instead of preventing want and beggary in a few, render it unavoidable to the whole community.”

IfsMenWantHumansMayArtIdeasDifferentWholeSeemsWould BeCareCommunityPerfectCommonBreakVirtueIndustryMoralityEqualDegreesEthicsBottomPossessionExtremesChecksCommon SenseHistorianPreventingHuman SocietyPerniciousBeggary
Book:Essays and Treatises on Philosophical Subjects
Create image

“... if you insist that the inference is made by a chain of reasoning, I desire you to produce that reasoning. The connection between the two is not intuitive. There is required a medium, which may enable the mind to draw such an inference, if indeed it be drawn by reasoning and argument. What that medium is, I must confess, passes my comprehension; and it is incumbent on those to produce it, who assert that it really exists, and is the origin of all our conclusions concerning matter of fact.”

IfsMindMayMadeTwoMatterFactsDesireProduceWords Of WisdomDrawsArgumentConnectionsMediumsConclusionChainsReasoningIntuitiveComprehensionMatter Of FactIncumbentsInference
Book:Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)
Create image