David Hume
David Hume
David Hume– 25 August 1776) or David Homewas a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, who is best known today for his highly influential system of radical philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth7 May 1711
liberty kind lost
Liberty of any kind is never lost all at once.
friendship spring philosophical
Truth springs from argument amongst friends.
lazy lively stills
The most lively thought is still inferior to the dullest sensation.
philosophy philosophical science
Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.
philosophical world labor
Everything in the world is purchased by labor.
order atheism unexpected
To have recourse to the veracity of the supreme Being, in order to prove the veracity of our senses, is surely making a very unexpected circuit.
stupid philosophical design
A purpose, an intention, a design, strikes everywhere even the careless, the most stupid thinker.
weed genius soil
The richest genius, like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated, shoots up into the rankest weeds.
pregnancy ethics morality
The rules of morality are not the conclusion of our reason.
ambition thinking government
In all ages of the world, priests have been enemies to liberty; and it is certain, that this steady conduct of theirs must have been founded on fixed reasons of interest and ambition. Liberty of thinking, and of expressing our thoughts, is always fatal to priestly power, and to those pious frauds, on which it is commonly founded; and, by an infallible connexion, which prevails among all kinds of liberty, this privilege can never be enjoyed, at least has never yet been enjoyed, but in a free government.
atheist philosophy men
A little philosophy makes a man an Atheist: a great deal converts him to religion
agreement perfect doubt
No one can doubt, that the convention for the distinction of property, and for the stability of possession, is of all circumstances the most necessary to the establishment of human society, and that after the agreement for the fixing and observing of this rule, there remains little or nothing to be done towards settling a perfect harmony and concord.
philosophy air giving
Accurate and just reasoning is the only catholic remedy, fitted for all persons and all dispositions; and is alone able to subvert that abstruse philosophy and metaphysical jargon, which, being mixed up with popular superstition, renders it in a manner impenetrable to careless reasoners, and gives it the air of science and wisdom.
truth passion ideas
Reason, in a strict sense, as meaning the judgment of truth and falsehood, can never, of itself, be any motive to the will, and can have no influence but so far as it touches some passion or affection. Abstract relations of ideas are the object of curiosity, not of volition. And matters of fact, where they are neither good nor evil, where they neither excite desire nor aversion, are totally indifferent, and whether known or unknown, whether mistaken or rightly apprehended, cannot be regarded as any motive to action.