“Heaven and hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and the bad. But the greatest part of mankind float betwixt vice and virtue.”
Good
“Every wise, just, and mild government, by rendering the condition of its subjects easy and secure, will always abound most in people, as well as in commodities and riches.”
GovernmentAll Quotes by David Hume
“The corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst.”
Best“There is not to be found, in all history, any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men, of such unquestioned good sense, education and learning, as to secure us against all delusion in themselves.”
Education“This avidity alone, of acquiring goods and possessions for ourselves and our nearest friends, is insatiable, perpetual, universal, and directly destructive of society.”
Alone“Every wise, just, and mild government, by rendering the condition of its subjects easy and secure, will always abound most in people, as well as in commodities and riches.”
Government“Nothing endears so much a friend as sorrow for his death. The pleasure of his company has not so powerful an influence.”
Death“Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.”
Beauty“The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny.”
Patriotism“A propensity to hope and joy is real riches one to fear and sorrow real poverty.”
Fear“The law always limits every power it gives.”
Power“Philosophy would render us entirely Pyrrhonian, were not nature too strong for it.”
Nature“Accuracy is, in every case, advantageous to beauty, and just reasoning to delicate sentiment. In vain would we exalt the one by depreciating the other.”
Beauty“Truth springs from argument amongst friends.”
Truth“A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.”
History“Beauty, whether moral or natural, is felt, more properly than perceived.”
Beauty“Men often act knowingly against their interest.”
Men“Scholastic learning and polemical divinity retarded the growth of all true knowledge.”
Knowledge“Belief is nothing but a more vivid, lively, forcible, firm, steady conception of an object, than what the imagination alone is ever able to attain.”
Alone“Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous those in philosophy only ridiculous.”
Religion“Any person seasoned with a just sense of the imperfections of natural reason, will fly to revealed truth with the greatest avidity.”
Truth