David Hume Quotes

Quotes about:

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  A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.

  David Hume

  Wise, Wisdom, Knowledge

  1748 An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, section 10, pt.1.

  147 Copy quote

• There is no such thing as freedom of choice unless there is freedom to refuse.

  David Hume

  Choices, Freedom Of Choice, Refuse

  212 Copy quote
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  All knowledge degenerates into probability.

  David Hume

  Knowledge, Science, Degenerates

  David Hume (2015). “A Treatise of Human Nature: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.144, 谷月社

  91 Copy quote

• When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken.

  David Hume

  Men, Stupidity, Arrogance

  48 Copy quote

• If God is omnipotent, omniscient and wholly good, whence evil? If God wills to prevent evil but cannot, then He is not omnipotent. If He can prevent evil but does not, then he is not good. In either case he is not God.

  David Hume

  Evil, Religion, Doe

  117 Copy quote

• Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.

  David Hume

  Positive, Beauty, Philosophical

  159 Copy quote

• Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.

  David Hume

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Government

  168 Copy quote

• To hate, to love, to think, to feel, to see; all this is nothing but to perceive.

  David Hume

  Hate, Philosophical, Thinking

  David Hume (2015). “A Treatise of Human Nature: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.57, 谷月社

  63 Copy quote
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  It is seldom, that liberty of any kind is lost all at once. Slavery has so frightful an aspect to men accustomed to freedom, that it must steal upon them by degrees, and must disguise itself in a thousand shapes, in order to be received.

  David Hume

  Men, Order, Liberty

  David Hume, Stuart D. Warner, Donald W. Livingston (1994). “Hume: Political Writings”, p.253, Hackett Publishing

  154 Copy quote

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

  David Hume

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Science

  A Treatise upon Human Nature bk. 1 (1739)

  16 Copy quote

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

  David Hume

  Life, Science, Men

  David Hume, Richard H. Popkin (1998). “Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (Second Edition)”, p.100, Hackett Publishing

  93 Copy quote

• Anything that is conceivable is possible.

  David Hume

  Destiny

  11 Copy quote

• 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

  Beauty, Mind, Quality

  'Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary' (ed. T. H. Green and T. H. Grose, 1875) 'Of the Standard of Taste' (1757)

  19 Copy quote

• I do not have enough faith to believe there is no god.

  David Hume

  Believe, Enough, There Is No God

  25 Copy quote

• History is the discovering of the principles of human nature.

  David Hume

  History, Principles, Human Nature

  12 Copy quote

• 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.

  David Hume

  Philosophy, Passion, Office

  A Treatise upon Human Nature bk. 2 (1739)

  11 Copy quote

• The difference between a man who is led by opinion or emotion and one who is led by reason. The former, whether he will or not, performs things of which he is entirely ignorant; the latter is subordinate to no one, and only does those things which he knows to be of primary importance in his life, and which on that account he desires the most; and therefore I call the former a slave, but the latter free.

  David Hume

  Men, Differences, Words Of Wisdom

  40 Copy quote

• Human happiness seems to consist in three ingredients: action, pleasure and indolence.

  David Hume

  Happiness, Feelings, Three

  David Hume (1825). “Essays and treatises on several subjects: essays, moral, political and literary”, p.266

  36 Copy quote

• Men often act knowingly against their interest.

  David Hume

  Philosophical, Men, Interest

  David Hume, Tom L. Beauchamp (2007). “A Dissertation on the Passions: The Natural History of Religion : a Critical Edition”, p.106, Oxford University Press

  16 Copy quote
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  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

  Philosophical, Passion, Eye

  David Hume (2010). “Moral and Political Philosophy”, p.406, Simon and Schuster

  96 Copy quote

• Superstition is an enemy to civil liberty.

  David Hume

  Enemy, Religion, Atheism

  David Hume (1862). “Essays moral, political, and literary. (Life of the author, etc.).”, p.48

  13 Copy quote

• When I hear that a man is religious, I conclude he is a rascal!

  David Hume

  Religious, Men, Rascals

  70 Copy quote

• No amount of observations of white swans can allow the inference that all swans are white, but the observation of a single black swan is sufficient to refute that conclusion.

  David Hume

  Swans, White, Black

  64 Copy quote

• The unhappy of all men is he who believes himself to be so.

  David Hume

  Believe, Men, Unhappy

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  Believe, Passion, Deities

  David Hume (1793). “An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion”, p.595

  71 Copy quote

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