Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by David Hume

Quote by David Hume

“Nothing is demonstrable, unless the contrary implies a contradiction. Nothing, that is distinctly conceivable, implies a contradiction. Whatever we conceive as existent, we can also conceive as non-existent. There is no being, therefore, whose non-existence implies a contradiction. Consequently there is no being, whose existence is demonstrable.”

Quote by David Hume

Book:Dialogues sur la religion naturelle
Create image

Work

Dialogues sur la religion naturelle

This book delves into the philosophical discourse on the nature of religion, examining its origins and implications in a naturalistic context. more

Author

David Hume
David Hume

David Hume, born on May 7, 1711, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and died on August 25, 1776, was an outstanding philosopher, historian, and economist. Known for his contributions to empiricism and skepticism, his works have had a profound impact on subsequent philosophy, economics, and psychology. more

You May Also Like

“Custom, then, is the great guide of human life. It is that principle alone, which renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past.”

HumansPastPrinciplesEventsExperienceTrainGuidesHuman LifeCustomsPast Experiences
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

“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

“Nothing more powerfully excites any affection than to conceal some part of its object, by throwing it into a kind of shade, whichat the same time that it shows enough to prepossess us in favour of the object, leaves still some work for the imagination.”

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

“Upon the whole, necessity is something, that exists in the mind, not in objects; nor is it possible for us ever to form the most distant idea of it, consider'd as a quality in bodies. Either we have no idea of necessity, or necessity is nothing but that determination of thought to pass from cause to effects and effects to causes, according to their experienc'd union.”

MindIdeasWholeBodyFormCausesQualityEffectsObjectsDeterminationUnionsNo Idea
Book:A Treatise of Human Nature
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