David Hume Quotes

“A wise man apportions his beliefs to the evidence.”

“Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.”

“Epicurus's old questions are still unanswered: Is he (God) willing to prevent evil, but not able? then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? then whence evil?”

“He is happy whose circumstances suit his temper, but he is more excellent who can suit his temper to his circumstance.”

“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.”

“Liberty of any kind is never lost all at once.”

“Reading and sauntering and lounging and dosing, which I call thinking, is my supreme Happiness.”

“The truth springs from arguments amongst friends.”

“When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities.”

“Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.”

“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.”

“The identity that we ascribe to things is only a fictitious one, established by the mind, not a peculiar nature belonging to what we’re talking about.”

“Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.”

“In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.”

“No man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping.”

“The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.”

“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.”

“Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.”