Quotessence
Home / Authors / David Hume
David Hume

David Hume Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenHumansReasonMayIfsPhilosophyPassionPhilosophicalMindMoralityReligionMankindObjectsSentimentsPrinciplesVirtueWholeWorldGivingReasoning

Famous David Hume Quotes

“The great charm of poetry consists in lively pictures of the sublime passions, magnanimity, courage, disdain of fortune; or thoseof the tender affections, love and friendship; which warm the heart, and diffuse over it similar sentiments and emotions.”

HeartPoetryPassionEmotionPoetFortuneAffectionWarmCharmOver ItSentimentsSublimeLivelyDisdainLove And FriendshipMagnanimity
Book:Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects
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

“When we reflect on our past sentiments and affections, our thought is a faithful mirror, and copies its objects truly; but the colours which it employs are faint and dull, in comparison of those in which our original perceptions were clothed.”

PastObjectsPerceptionMirrorsOriginalsAffectionFaithfulColourDullComparisonCopiesSentimentsOur ThoughtsOur Past
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

“All sentiment is right; because sentiment has a reference to nothing beyond itself, and is always real, wherever a man is conscious of it. But all determinations of the understanding are not right; because they have a reference to something beyond themselves, to wit, real matter of fact; and are not always conformable to that standard.”

MenRealMatterFactsUnderstandingStandardsConsciousDeterminationWitSentimentsMatter Of Fact
Book:Of the Standard of Taste
Create image

“But would we know, whether the pretended prophet had really attained a just sentiment of morals? Let us attend to his narration; and we shall soon find, that he bestows praise on such instances of treachery, inhumanity, cruelty, revenge, bigotry, as are utterly incompatible with civilized society. No steady rule of right seems there to be attended to; and every action is blamed or praised, so far only as it is beneficial or hurtful to the true believers.”

KnowsSeemsActionMoralPraiseIslamRevengeBelieverCrueltyInstanceProphetBigotryCivilizedSentimentsSteadyBeneficialHurtfulTreacheryInhumanityTrue BelieverCivilized SocietyNarration
Book:Essays and Treatises on several subjects, etc. New edition
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

“A man who has cured himself of all ridiculous prepossessions, and is fully, sincerely, and steadily convinced, from experience as well as philosophy, that the difference of fortune makes less difference in happiness than is vulgarly imagined; such a one does not measure out degrees of esteem according to the rent-rolls of his acquaintance. ... his internal sentiments are more regulated by the personal characters of men, than by the accidental and capricious favors of fortune.”

MenWellsDoePhilosophyCharacterPoliticalDifferencesDegreesFortuneConvincedFavorsRidiculousEsteemInternalsSentimentsAcquaintanceSincerelyCapriciousCharacter Of A ManPersonal Character
Author:David Hume
Create image

“No quality of human nature is more remarkable, both in itself and in its consequences, than that propensity we have to sympathize with others, and to receive by communication their inclinations and sentiments, however different from, or even contrary to our own.”

HumansDifferentQualityHuman NatureCommunicationConsequenceContraryRemarkableSentimentsInclinationPropensity
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

“The minds of men are mirrors to one another, not only because they reflect each other's emotions, but also because those rays of passions, sentiments and opinions may be often reverberated, and may decay away by insensible degrees.”

MenMindMayPassionEmotionOpinionDegreesEmpathyMirrorsSentimentsRaysDecayInsensible
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

“There has been a controversy started of late, much better worth examination, concerning the general foundation of Morals; whether they be derived from Reason, or from Sentiment; whether we attain the knowledge of them by a chain of argument and induction, or by an immediate feeling and finer internal sense; whether, like all sound judgement of truth and falsehood, they should be the same to every rational intelligent being; or whether, like the perception of beauty and deformity, they be founded entirely on the particular fabric and constitution of the human species.”

ShouldHumansHas BeensReasonFeelingsSoundMoralParticularMoralityLatePerceptionEthicsArgumentConstitutionIntelligentFoundationSpeciesRationalChainsJudgementInternalsSentimentsFalsehoodFabricControversyExaminationHuman SpeciesDeformityTruth And FalsehoodPerception Of BeautySound Judgement
Author:David Hume
Create image

“Truth is disputable; not taste: what exists in the nature of things is the standard of our judgement; what each man feels within himself is the standard of sentiment. Propositions in geometry may be proved, systems in physics may be controverted; but the harmony of verse, the tenderness of passion, the brilliancy of wit, must give immediate pleasure. No man reasons concerning another's beauty; but frequently concerning the justice or injustice of his actions.”

MenGivingFeelsMayReasonActionPassionJusticePleasureMoralityTasteTruth IsStandardsEthicsHarmonyInjusticePhysicsWitJudgementSentimentsTendernessVersesPropositionsGeometry
Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Revision of Great Book
Create image

“These arguments on each side (and many more might be produced) are so plausible, that I am apt to suspect, they may, the one as well as the other, be solid and satisfactory, and that reason and sentiment concur in almost all moral determinations and conclusions.”

WellsMayReasonMightSidesMoralMoralityEthicsDeterminationArgumentConclusionSuspectsSentimentsPlausibleConcur
Book:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
Create image

“But in many orders of beauty, particularly those of the finer arts, it is requisite to employ much reasoning, in order to feel the proper sentiment; and a false relish may frequently be corrected by argument and reflection. There are just grounds to conclude, that moral beauty partakes of this latter species, and demands the assistance of our intellectual faculties, in order to give it a suitable influence on the human mind.”

GivingFeelsMindHumansMayArtOrderMoralInfluenceMoralityDemandIntellectualReflectionEthicsArgumentSpeciesReasoningLatterFacultySentimentsHuman MindAssistanceSuitableRelish
Book:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
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