David Hume quotes - page 3

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions. (David Hume)
Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.
David Hume
The corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst.
David Hume
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.
David Hume
Men often act knowingly against their interest.
David Hume
No man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping.
David Hume
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.
David Hume
It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom.
David Hume
Accuracy is, in every case, advantageous to beauty, and just reasoning to delicate sentiment. In vain would we exalt the one by depreciating the other.
David Hume
Beauty, whether moral or natural, is felt, more properly than perceived.
David Hume
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. (David Hume)
It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless appetite for applause.
David Hume
Philosophy would render us entirely Pyrrhonian, were not nature too strong for it.
David Hume
A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.
David Hume
It is a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.
David Hume
The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny.
David Hume
The law always limits every power it gives.
David Hume
No advantages in this world are pure and unmixed.
David Hume
Any person seasoned with a just sense of the imperfections of natural reason, will fly to revealed truth with the greatest avidity.
David Hume
The rules of morality are not the conclusion of our reason.
David Hume
Human Nature is the only science of man; and yet has been hitherto the most neglected. (David Hume)
Every wise, just, and mild government, by rendering the condition of its subjects easy and secure, will always abound most in people, as well as in commodities and riches.
David Hume
Scholastic learning and polemical divinity retarded the growth of all true knowledge.
David Hume
Nothing endears so much a friend as sorrow for his death. The pleasure of his company has not so powerful an influence.
David Hume
Avarice, the spur of industry.
David Hume