David Hume Quotes About Affection

Quotes about: Affection

• Eloquence, at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection, but addresses itself entirely to the desires and affections, captivating the willing hearers, and subduing their understanding.

  David Hume

  Reflection, Understanding, Desire

  "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding". Book by David Hume. Section 10: "Of Miracles", Part 2, 1758.

• Vanity is so closely allied to virtue, and to love the fame of laudable actions approaches so near the love of laudable actions for their own sake, that these passions are more capable of mixture than any other kinds of affection; and it is almost impossible to have the latter without some degree of the former.

  David Hume

  Passion, Vanity, Degrees

  David Hume (2016). “Essays Moral, Political, Literary: Revision of Great Book”, p.66, VM eBooks

• And as this is the obvious appearance of things, it must be admitted, till some hypothesis be discovered, which by penetrating deeper into human nature, may prove the former affections to be nothing but modifications of the latter. All attempts of this kind have hitherto proved fruitless, and seem to have proceeded entirely from that love of simplicity which has been the source of much false reasoning in philosophy.

  David Hume

  Philosophy, Simplicity, Words Of Wisdom

  David Hume (1758). “Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects”, p.402

• There is nothing, in itself, valuable or despicable, desirable or hateful, beautiful or deformed; but that these attributes arise from the particular constitution and fabric of human sentiment and affection.

  David Hume

  Beautiful, Science, Fabric

  David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.675, Delphi Classics

• The feelings of our heart, the agitation of our passions, the vehemence of our affections, dissipate all its conclusions, and reduce the profound philosopher to a mere plebeian

  David Hume

  Passion, Heart, Profound

  David Hume (1772). “An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An. inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion”, p.5

• Almost every one has a predominant inclination, to which his other desires and affections submit, and which governs him, though perhaps with some intervals, though the whole course of his life.

  David Hume

  Desire, Affection, Submit

  David Hume, Geoffrey Sayre-McCord “Moral Philosophy”, Hackett Publishing

• 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.

  David Hume

  World, Littles, Ruins

  A Treatise upon Human Nature bk. 2 (1739)

• Friendship is a calm and sedate affection, conducted by reason and cemented by habit; springing from long acquaintance and mutual obligations, without jealousies or fears, and without those feverish fits of heat and cold, which cause such an agreeable torment in the amorous passion.

  David Hume

  Friendship, Passion, Long

  David Hume (2016). “Essays Moral, Political, Literary: Revision of Great Book”, p.161, VM eBooks

• 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.

  David Hume

  Past, Mirrors, Faithful

  David Hume, Eric Steinberg (1992). “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”, p.10, Hackett Publishing

• Jealousy is a painful passion; yet without some share of it, the agreeable affection of love has difficulty to subsist in its full force and violence.

  David Hume

  Jealousy, Passion, Violence

  David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.1298, Delphi Classics

• It is a certain rule that wit and passion are entirely incompatible. When the affections are moved, there is no place for the imagination.

  David Hume

  Passion, Imagination, Affection

  David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.697, Delphi Classics

• It is with books as with women, where a certain plainness of manner and of dress is more engaging than that glare of paint and airs and apparel which may dazzle the eye, but reaches not the affections.

  David Hume

  Book, Eye, Air

  David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.697, Delphi Classics

• The great charm of poetry consists in lively pictures of the sublime passions, magnanimity, courage, disdain of fortune; or thoseof the tender affections, love and friendship; which warm the heart, and diffuse over it similar sentiments and emotions.

  David Hume

  Heart, Passion, Poetry

  David Hume (1758). “Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects”, p.453

• 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.

  David Hume

  Truth, Passion, Ideas

  David Hume, Tom L. Beauchamp (2007). “A Dissertation on the Passions: The Natural History of Religion : a Critical Edition”, p.24, Oxford University Press

• Eloquence, when at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection; but addressing itself entirely to the fancy or the affections, captivates the willing hearers, and subdues their understanding. Happily, this pitch it seldom attains. But what a Tully or a Demosthenes could scarcely effect over a Roman or Athenian audience, every Capuchin, every itinerant or stationary teacher can perform over the generality of mankind, and in a higher degree, by touching such gross and vulgar passions.

  David Hume

  Teacher, Passion, Reflection

  David Hume (2012). “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”, p.127, tredition

• Nothing more powerfully excites any affection than to conceal some part of its object, by throwing it into a kind of shade, whichat the same time that it shows enough to prepossess us in favour of the object, leaves still some work for the imagination.

  David Hume

  Passion, Imagination, Shade

  David Hume, Tom L. Beauchamp (2007). “A Dissertation on the Passions: The Natural History of Religion : a Critical Edition”, p.112, Oxford University Press

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