David Hume

Find the best quotes, maxims and aphorisms of David Hume

Biography : Scottish philosopher, historian and economist.
Born: 1711 - Died: 1776
Period:
18th century
Place of birth: United Kingdom

United Kingdom

David Hume - Quotes

Though men be much governed by interest; yet even interest itself, and all human affairs, are entirely governed by opinion.
David Hume - Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary /

Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.
David Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding /

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

Nature is always too strong for principle.
David Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding /

Happy, if we can unite the boundaries of the different species of philosophy, by reconciling profound enquiry with clearness, and truth with novelty!
David Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding /

Good sense and genius beget esteem and regard: Wit and humour excite love and affection.
David Hume /

A propensity to hope and joy is real riches: One to fear and sorrow, real poverty.
David Hume - Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary /

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 - Of the Standard of Taste /

Mankind are so much the same, in all times and places, that history informs us of nothing new or strange in this particular. Its chief use is only to discover the constant and universal principles of human nature.
David Hume /

Custom, then, is the great guide to human life.
David Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding /

Every effect is an event different from its cause.
David Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding /

No contingency anywhere in the universe; no indifference; no liberty. While we act, we are, at the same time, acted upon.
David Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding /

A wise man's kingdom is his own breast: or, if he ever looks farther, it will only be to the judgment of a select few, who are free from prejudices, and capable of examining his work.
David Hume

Nature has pointed out a mixed kind of life as most suitable to the human race, and secretly admonished them to allow none of these biases to draw too much, so as to incapacitate them for other occupations and entertainments.
David Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Man is a sociable, no less than a reasonable being.
David Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding /

Reason is nothing but a wonderful and unintelligible instinct in our souls.
David Hume - A Treatise of Human Nature /

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 - A Treatise of Human Nature /

Anticipation of pleasure is, in itself, a very considerable pleasure.
David Hume - A Treatise of Human Nature /

pleasure