Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by David Hume

Quote by David Hume

“It is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger. It is not contrary to reason for me to choose my total ruin, to prevent the least uneasiness of an Indian, or person wholly unknown to me. It is as little contrary to reason to prefer even my own acknowledged lesser good to my greater, and have a more ardent affection for the former than the latter.”

Quote by David Hume

Create image

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

“Let us become thoroughly sensible of the weakness, blindness, and narrow limits of human reason: Let us duly consider its uncertainty and endless contrarieties, even in subjects of common life and practice.... When these topics are displayed in their full light, as they are by some philosophers and almost all divines; who can retain such confidence in this frail faculty of reason as to pay any regard to its determinations in points so sublime, so abstruse, so remote from common life and experience?”

HumansReasonLightCommonPayPracticeSubjectsDivineLimitsWeaknessDeterminationRegardPhilosopherEndlessUncertaintyFacultySensibleSublimeTopicsBlindnessFrailHuman ReasonCommon Life
Book:Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)
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

“Luxury, or a refinement on the pleasures and conveniences of life, had long been supposed the source of every corruption in government, and the immediate cause of faction, sedition, civil wars, and the total loss of liberty. It was, therefore, universally regarded as a vice, and was an object of declamation to all satyrists, and severe moralists.”

LongWarGovernmentCausesLossPleasureLibertyObjectsSourceVicesCorruptionLuxuryCivil WarSevereConvenienceRefinementFactionsMoralistDeclamation
Book:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
Create image

“Enthusiasm produces the most cruel disorders in human society; but its fury is like that of thunder and tempest, which exhaust themselves in a little time, and leave the air more calm and serene than before.”

HumansLittlesAirProduceCalmEnthusiasmDisorderThunderFurySereneHuman SocietyLittle TimeTempest
Book:Essays, moral, political, and literary.- v. 2. An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of 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

“When the coherence of the parts of a stone, or even that composition of parts which renders it extended; when these familiar objects, I say, are so inexplicable, and contain circumstances so repugnant and contradictory; with what assurance can we decide concerning the origin of worlds, or trace their history from eternity to eternity?”

WorldObjectsCircumstancesStonesEternityFamiliarCompositionAssuranceContradictoryInexplicableCoherence
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