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As Every Inquiry Which Regards Religion Is Of The Utmost Importance, There Are Two Questions In Particular Which Challenge Our Attention, To Wit, That Concerning Its Foundation In Reason, And That Concerning It Origin In Human Nature.

-David Hume

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As Every Inquiry Which

David Hume

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As Every Inquiry Which Regards Religion Is Of The Utmost Importance, There Are Two Questions In Particular Which Challenge Our Attention, To Wit, That Concerning Its Foundation In Reason, And That Concerning It Origin In Human Nature.

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In Ancient Times, Bodily Strength And Dexterity, Being Of Greater Use And Importance In War, Was Also Much More Esteemed And Valued, Than At Present. ... In Short, The Different Ranks Of Men Are, In A Great Measure, Regulated By Riches.

But There Still Prevails, Even In Nations Well Acquainted With Commerce, A Strong Jealousy With Regard To The Balance Of Trade, And A Fear, That All Their Gold And Silver May Be Leaving Them. This Seems To Me, Almost In Every Case, A Groundless Apprehension; And I Should As Soon Dread, That All Our Springs And Rivers Should Be Exhausted, As That Money Should Abandon A Kingdom Where There Are People And Industry.

Avarice, Or The Desire Of Gain, Is A Universal Passion Which Operates At All Times, At All Places, And Upon All Persons.

When We Reflect On The Shortness And Uncertainty Of Life, How Despicable Seem All Our Pursuits Of Happiness.

Uncertainty Of Life

That The Sun Will Not Rise Tomorrow Is No Less Intelligible A Proposition, And Implies No More Contradiction, Than The Affirmation, That It Will Rise.

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.

Virtue, Like Wholesome Food, Is Better Than Poisons, However Corrected.

We May Observe That, In Displaying The Praises Of Any Humane, Beneficent Man, There Is One Circumstance Which Never Fails To Be Amply Insisted On, Namely, The Happiness And Satisfaction, Derived To Society From His Intercourse And Good Offices.

It Is Harder To Avoid Censure Than To Gain Applause; For This May Be Done By One Great Or Wise Action In An Age. But To Escape Censure A Man Must Pass His Whole Life Without Saying Or Doing One Ill Or Foolish Thing

He Is Happy Whom Circumstances Suit His Temper; But He Is More Excellent Who Suits His Temper To Any Circumstance.

Praise Never Gives Us Much Pleasure Unless It Concur With Our Own Opinion, And Extol Us For Those Qualities In Which We Chiefly Excel.

Nothing Is More Favorable To The Rise Of Politeness And Learning, Than A Number Of Neighboring And Independent States, Connected Together By Commerce And Policy.

Enthusiasm, Being The Infirmity Of Bold And Ambitious Tempers, Is Naturally Accompanied With A Spirit Of Liberty; As Superstition,on The Contrary, Renders Men Tame And Abject, And Fits Them For Slavery.

Avarice, The Spur Of Industry, Is So Obstinate A Passion, And Works Its Way Through So Many Real Dangers And Difficulties, That It Is Not Likely To Be Scared By An Imaginary Danger, Which Is So Small, That It Scarcely Admits Of Calculation. Commerce, Therefore, In My Opinion, Is Apt To Decay In Absolute Governments, Not Because It Is There Less Secure, But Because It Is Less Honourable.

To Philosopher And Historian The Madness And Imbecile Wickedness Of Mankind Ought To Appear Ordinary Events.

To Hate, To Love, To Think, To Feel, To See; All This Is Nothing But To Perceive.

When I Shall Be Dead, The Principles Of Which I Am Composed Will Still Perform Their Part In The Universe, And Will Be Equally Useful In The Grand Fabric, As When They Composed This Individual Creature. The Difference To The Whole Will Be No Greater Betwixt My Being In A Chamber And In The Open Air. The One Change Is Of More Importance To Me Than The Other; But Not More So To The Universe.

The Crusades - The Most Signal And Most Durable Monument Of Human Folly That Has Yet Appeared In Any Age Or Nation.

I Know With Certainty, That [an Honest Man] Is Not To Put His Hand Into The Fire, And Hold It There, Till It Be Consumed: And Thisevent, I Think I Can Foretell With The Same Assurance, As That, If He Throw Himself Out At The Window, And Meet With No Obstruction, He Will Not Remain A Moment Suspended In The Air.

No Conclusions Can Be More Agreeable To Scepticism Than Such As Make Discoveries Concerning The Weakness And Narrow Limits Of Human Reason And Capacity.

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.

The Ages Of Greatest Public Spirit Are Not Always Eminent For Private Virtue.

The Greater Part Of Mankind May Be Divided Into Two Classes; That Of Shallow Thinkers Who Fall Short Of The Truth; And That Of Abstruse Thinkers Who Go Beyond It.

It Is A Great Mortification To The Vanity Of Man, That His Utmost Art And Industry Can Never Equal The Meanest Of Nature's Productions, Either For Beauty Or Value. Art Is Only The Under-workman, And Is Employed To Give A Few Strokes Of Embellishment To Those Pieces, Which Come From The Hand Of The Master.

The Identity That We Ascribe To Things Is Only A Fictitious One, Established By The Mind, Not A Peculiar Nature Belonging To What We’re Talking About.

All Morality Depends Upon Our Sentiments; And When Any Action Or Quality Of The Mind Pleases Us After A Certain Manner We Say It Is Virtuous; And When The Neglect Or Nonperformance Of It Displeases Us After A Like Manner, We Say That We Lie Under An Obligation To Perform It.

When I Turn My Eye Inward, I Find Nothing But Doubt And Ignorance. All The World Conspires To Oppose And Contradict Me; Though Such Is My Weakness, That I Feel All My Opinions Loosen And Fall Of Themselves, When Unsupported By The Approbation Of Others.

Enthusiasm Produces The Most Cruel Disorders In Human Society; But Its Fury Is Like That Of Thunder And Tempest, Which Exhaust Themselves In A Little Time, And Leave The Air More Calm And Serene Than Before.

The Most Perfect Philosophy Of The Natural Kind Only Staves Off Our Ignorance A Little Longer: As Perhaps The Most Perfect Philosophy Of The Moral Or Metaphysical Kind Serves Only To Discover Larger Portions Of It. Thus The Observation Of Human Blindness And Weakness Is The Result Of All Philosophy, And Meets Us At Every Turn, In Spite Of Our Endeavours To Elude Or Avoid It.

Of The World And Drudgery Of Business , Seeks A Pretense Of Reason To Give Itself A Full And Uncontrolled Indulgence.

I Cannot But Bless The Memory Of Julius Caesar, For The Great Esteem He Expressed For Fat Men And His Aversion To Lean Ones.

Nothing Is So Convenient As A Decisive Argument ... Which Must At Least Silence The Most Arrogant Bigotry And Superstition, And Free Us From Their Impertinent Solicitations. I Flatter Myself, That I Have Discovered An Argument ... Which, If Just, Will, With The Wise And Learned, Be An Everlasting Check To All Kinds Of Superstitious Delusion, And Consequently, Will Be Useful As Long As The World Endures. For So Long, I Presume, Will The Accounts Of Miracles And Prodigies Be Found In All History, Sacred And Profane.

Reason Is, And Ought Only To Be The Slave Of The Passions.

The Unhappy Of All Men Is He Who Believes Himself To Be So.

A Man Who Has Cured Himself Of All Ridiculous Prepossessions, And Is Fully, Sincerely, And Steadily Convinced, From Experience As Well As Philosophy, That The Difference Of Fortune Makes Less Difference In Happiness Than Is Vulgarly Imagined; Such A One Does Not Measure Out Degrees Of Esteem According To The Rent-rolls Of His Acquaintance. ... His Internal Sentiments Are More Regulated By The Personal Characters Of Men, Than By The Accidental And Capricious Favors Of Fortune.

Justice Is A Moral Virtue, Merely Because It Has That Tendency To The Good Of Mankind, And Indeed Is Nothing But An Artificial Invention To That Purpose. The Same May Be Said Of Allegiance, Of The Laws Of Nations, Of Modesty, And Of Good Manners. All These Are Mere Human Contrivances For The Interest Of Society.

All Power, Even The Most Despotic, Rests Ultimately On Opinion.

No Man Ever Threw Away Life While It Was Worth Keeping.

Do You Come To A Philosopher As To A Cunning Man, To Learn Something By Magic Or Witchcraft, Beyond What Can Be Known By Common Prudence And Discretion?

What Peculiar Privilege Has This Little Agitation Of The Brain Which We Call Thought, That We Must Thus Make It The Model Of The Whole Universe? Our Partiality In Our Own Favour Does Indeed Present It On All Occasions; But Sound Philosophy Ought Carefully To Guard Against So Natural An Illusion.

Fine Writing, According To Mr. Addison, Consists Of Sentiments Which Are Natural Without Being Obvious.

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.

Where Is The Reward Of Virtue? And What Recompense Has Nature Provided For Such Important Sacrifices As Those Of Life And Fortune, Which We Must Often Make To It? O Sons Of Earth! Are Ye Ignorant Of The Value Of This Celestial Mistress? And Do Ye Meanly Inquire For Her Portion, When Ye Observe Her Genuine Beauty?

To Consider The Matter Aright, Reason Is Nothing But A Wonderful And Unintelligible Instinct In Our Souls, Which Carries Us Along A Certain Train Of Ideas, And Endows Them With Particular Qualities, According To Their Particular Situations And Relations. This Instinct, 'tis True, Arises From Past Observation And Experience; But Can Anyone Give The Ultimate Reason, Why Past Experience And Observation Produces Such An Effect, Any More Than Why Nature Alone Should Produce It?

Truth Springs From Argument Amongst Friends.

Where Ambition Can Cover Its Enterprises, Even To The Person Himself, Under The Appearance Of Principle, It Is The Most Incurable And Inflexible Of Passions

In A Vain Man, The Smallest Spark May Kindle Into The Greatest Flame, Because The Materials Are Always Prepared For It.

The Many Instances Of Forged Miracles, And Prophecies, And Supernatural Events, Which, In All Ages, Have Either Been Detected By Contrary Evidence, Or Which Detect Themselves By Their Absurdity, Prove Sufficiently The Strong Propensity Of Mankind To The Extraordinary And Marvellous, And Ought Reasonably To Begat A Suspicion Against All Relations Of This Kind.

Convulsions In Nature, Disorders, Prodigies, Miracles, Though The Most Opposite Of The Plan Of A Wise Superintendent, Impress Mankind With The Strongest Sentiments Of Religion.

I Am Apt To Suspect The Negroes To Be Naturally Inferior To The Whites. There Scarcely Ever Was A Civilization Of Their Complexion, Nor Even Any Individual, Eminent Either In Action Or Speculation.

How Can We Satisfy Ourselves Without Going On In Infinitum? And, After All, What Satisfaction Is There In That Infinite Progression? Let Us Remember The Story Of The Indian Philosopher And His Elephant. It Was Never More Applicable Than To The Present Subject. If The Material World Rests Upon A Similar Ideal World, This Ideal World Must Rest Upon Some Other; And So On, Without End. It Were Better, Therefore, Never To Look Beyond The Present Material World.

It Is Certain That The Easy And Obvious Philosophy Will Always, With The Generality Of Mankind, Have Preference Above The Accurate.

The Observation Of Human Blindness And Weakness Is The Result Of All Philosophy, And Meets Us At Every Turn, In Spite Of Our Endeavours To Elude Or Avoid It.

Uncommon Expressions Are A Disfigurement Rather Than An Embellishment Of Discourse.

The Stability Of Modern Governments Above The Ancient, And The Accuracy Of Modern Philosophy, Have Improved, And Probably Will Still Improve, By Similar Gradations.

I Have Written On All Sorts Of Subjects... Yet I Have No Enemies; Except Indeed All The Whigs, All The Tories, And All The Christians.

Beauty In Things Exists In The Mind Which Contemplates Them.

When Suicide Is Out Of Fashion We Conclude That None But Madmen Destroy Themselves; And All The Efforts Of Courage Appear Chimerical To Dastardly Minds ... Nevertheless, How Many Instances Are There, Well Attested, Of Men, In Every Other Respect Perfectly Discreet, Who, Without Remorse, Rage, Or Despair, Have Quitted Life For No Other Reason Than Because It Was A Burden To Them, And Have Died With More Composure Than They Lived?

Moving From An Objective Statement Of Fact To A Subjective Statement Of Value Does Not Work, Because It Leaves Open Questions That Have Not Been Answered.

When I Hear That A Man Is Religious, I Conclude He Is A Rascal!

It Is Harder To Avoid Censure Than To Gain Applause.

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.

No Advantages In This World Are Pure And Unmixed.

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.

It Cannot Reasonably Be Doubted, But A Little Miss, Dressed In A New Gown For A Dancing-school Ball, Receives As Complete Enjoyment As The Greatest Orator, Who Triumphs In The Splendour Of His Eloquence, While He Governs The Passions And Resolutions Of A Numerous Assembly.

All That Belongs To Human Understanding, In This Deep Ignorance And Obscurity, Is To Be Sceptical, Or At Least Cautious, And Not To Admit Of Any Hypothesis Whatever, Much Less Of Any Which Is Supported By No Appearance Of Probability.

No Human Testimony Can Have Such Force As To Prove A Miracle, And Make It A Just Foundation For Any Such System Of Religion

Courage, Of All National Qualities, Is The Most Precarious; Because It Is Exerted Only At Intervals, And By A Few In Every Nation; Whereas Industry, Knowledge, Civility, May Be Of Constant And Universal Use, And For Several Ages, May Become Habitual To The Whole People.

God Is An Ever-present Spirit Guiding All That Happens To A Wise And Holy End.

Such Is The Nature Of Novelty That Where Anything Pleases It Becomes Doubly Agreeable If New; But If It Displeases, It Is Doubly Displeasing On That Very Account.

Reasoning From The Common Course Of Nature, And Without Supposing Any New Interposition Of The Supreme Cause, Which Ought Always To Be Excluded From Philosophy; What Is Incorruptible Must Also Be Ingenerable. The Soul, Therefore, If Immortal, Existed Before Our Birth: And If The Former Existence Noways Concerned Us, Neither Will The Latter.

For, Besides, That Many Persons Find Too Sensible An Interest In Perpetually Recalling Such Topics; Besides This, I Say, The Motive Of Blind Despair Can Never Reasonably Have Place In The Sciences; Since, However Unsuccessful Former Attempts May Have Proved, There Is Still Room To Hope, That The Industry, Good Fortune, Or Improved Sagacity Of Succeeding Generations May Reach Discoveries Unknown To Former Ages.

It's When We Start Working Together That The Real Healing Takes Place... It's When We Start Spilling Our Sweat, And Not Our Blood.

It Is Evident, From Their Method Of Propagation, That A Couple Of Cats, In Fifty Years, Would Stock A Whole Kingdom; And If That Religious Veneration Were Still Paid Them, It Would, In Twenty More, Not Only Be Easier In Egypt To Find A God Than A Man, Which Petronius Says Was The Case In Some Parts Of Italy; But The Gods Must At Last Entirely Starve The Men, And Leave Themselves Neither Priests Nor Votaries Remaining.

Luxury, Or A Refinement On The Pleasures And Conveniences Of Life, Had Long Been Supposed The Source Of Every Corruption In Government, And The Immediate Cause Of Faction, Sedition, Civil Wars, And The Total Loss Of Liberty. It Was, Therefore, Universally Regarded As A Vice, And Was An Object Of Declamation To All Satyrists, And Severe Moralists.

And What Is The Greatest Number? Number One.

The Sceptics Assert, Though Absurdly, That The Origin Of All Religious Worship Was Derived From The Utility Of Inanimate Objects,as The Sun And Moon, To The Support And Well-being Of Mankind.

Superstition Is An Enemy To Civil Liberty.

It Seems Certain, That Though A Man, In A Flush Of Humour, After Intense Reflection On The Many Contradictions And Imperfections Of Human Reason, May Entirely Renounce All Belief And Opinion, It Is Impossible For Him To Persevere In This Total Scepticism, Or Make It Appear In His Conduct For A Few Hours.

A Man Posing For A Painting.

Men Often Act Knowingly Against Their Interest.

It Seems To Me, That The Only Objects Of The Abstract Sciences Or Of Demonstration Is Quantity And Number, And That All Attempts To Extend This More Perfect Species Of Knowledge Beyond These Bounds Are Mere Sophistry And Illusion.

These Arguments On Each Side (and Many More Might Be Produced) Are So Plausible, That I Am Apt To Suspect, They May, The One As Well As The Other, Be Solid And Satisfactory, And That Reason And Sentiment Concur In Almost All Moral Determinations And Conclusions.

There Is An Inconvenience Which Attends All Abstruse Reasoning. That It May Silence, Without Convincing An Antagonist, And Requires The Same Intense Study To Make Us Sensible Of Its Force, That Was At First Requisite For Its Invention. When We Leave Our Closet, And Engage In The Common Affairs Of Life, Its Conclusions Seem To Vanish, Like The Phantoms Of The Night On The Appearance Of The Morning; And 'tis Difficult For Us To Retain Even That Conviction, Which We Had Attain'd With Difficulty.

Interest Is The Barometer Of The State.

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.

Though Men Of Delicate Taste Be Rare, They Are Easily To Be Distinguished In Society By The Soundness Of Their Understanding, And The Superiority Of Their Faculties Above The Rest Of Mankind.

The Life Of Man Is Of No Greater Importance To The Universe Than That Of An Oyster.

Time Is A Perishable Commodity.

Time Management

The Fact That Different Cultures Have Different Practices No More Refutes [moral] Objectivism Than The Fact That Water Flows In Different Directions In Different Places Refutes The Law Of Gravity

Municipal Laws Are A Supply To The Wisdom Of Each Individual; And, At The Same Time, By Restraining The Natural Liberty Of Men, Make Private Interest Submit To The Interest Of The Public.

In All The Events Of Life, We Ought Still To Preserve Our Scepticism. If We Believe That Fire Warms, Or Water Refreshes, It Is Only Because It Costs Us Too Much Pains To Think Otherwise.

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.

..when, In My Philosophical Disquisitions, I Deny A Providence And A Future State, I Undermine Not The Foundations Of Society, But Advance Principles, Which They Themselves, Upon Their Own Topics, If They Argue Consistently, Must Allow To Be Solid And Satisfactory.

Mankind Are Always Found Prodigal Both Of Blood And Treasure In The Maintenance Of Public Justice.

And Whoever Is Moved By Faith To Assent To It, Is Conscious Of A Continued Miracle In His Own Person, Which Subverts All The Principles Of His Understanding, And Gives Him A Determination To Believe What Is Most Contrary To Custom And Experience.

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.

Poets Themselves, Tho' Liars By Profession, Always Endeavour To Give An Air Of Truth To Their Fictions.

While We Are Reasoning Concerning Life, Life Is Gone.

For As To The Dispersing Of Books, That Circumstance Does Perhaps As Much Harm As Good: Since Nonsense Flies With Greater Celerity, And Makes Greater Impression Than Reason; Though Indeed No Particular Species Of Nonsense Is So Durable. But The Several Forms Of Nonsense Never Cease Succeeding One Another; And Men Are Always Under The Dominion Of Some One Or Other, Though Nothing Was Ever Equal In Absurdity And Wickedness To Our Present Patriotism.

The Mind Is A Kind Of Theater, Where Several Perceptions Successively Make Their Appearence; Pass, Re-pass, Glide Away, And Mingle In An Infinite Variety Of Postures And Situations.

Never Literary Attempt Was More Unfortunate Than My Treatise Of Human Nature. It Fell Dead-born From The Press.

Obscurity, Indeed, Is Painful To The Mind As Well As To The Eye; But To Bring Light From Obscurity, By Whatever Labour, Must Needsbe Delightful And Rejoicing.

While Newton Seemed To Draw Off The Veil From Some Of The Mysteries Of Nature, He Showed At The Same Time The Imperfections Of The Mechanical Philosophy; And Thereby Restored Her Ultimate Secrets To That Obscurity, In Which They Ever Did And Ever Will Remain.

Anything That Is Conceivable Is Possible.

Nothing Can Be More Real, Or Concern Us More, Than Our Own Sentiments Of Pleasure And Uneasiness; And If These Be Favourable To Virtue And Unfavourable To Vice, No More Can Be Requisite To The Regulation Of Our Conduct And Behavior.

Generally Speaking, The Errors In Religion Are Dangerous; Those In Philosophy Only Ridiculous.

What We Call A Mind Is Nothing But A Heap Or Collection Of Different Perceptions, United Together By Certain Relations And Supposed, Though Falsely, To Be Endowed With A Perfect Simplicity And Identity.

Riches Are Valuable At All Times, And To All Men, Because They Always Purchase Pleasures Such As Men Are Accustomed To And Desire; Nor Can Anything Restrain Or Regulate The Love Of Money But A Sense Of Honor And Virtue, Which, If It Be Not Nearly Equal At All Times, Will Naturally Abound Most In Ages Of Knowledge And Refinement.

Any Pride Or Haughtiness, Is Displeasing To Us, Merely Because It Shocks Our Own Pride, And Leads Us By Sympathy Into Comparison, Which Causes The Disagreeable Passion Of Humility.

It Is Not Reason Which Is The Guide Of Life, But Custom.

Eloquence, When In Its Highest Pitch, Leaves Little Room For Reason Or Reflection.

Apart From The Representational Content Of An Idea There Is Another Component: Its Force And Vivacity, Its Impetus.

I Never Asserted Such An Absurd Thing As That Things Arise Without A Cause.

Human Happiness Seems To Consist In Three Ingredients; Action, Pleasure And Indolence. And Though These Ingredients Ought To Be Mixed In Different Proportions, According To The Disposition Of The Person, Yet No One Ingredient Can Be Entirely Wanting Without Destroying In Some Measure The Relish Of The Whole Composition.

Curiosity, Or The Love Of Knowledge, Has A Very Limited Influence, And Requires Youth, Leisure Education, Genius And Example To Make It Govern Any Person

Manufacturers...gradually Shift Their Places, Leaving Those Countries And Provinces Which They Have Already Enriched, And Flying To Others, Whether They Are Allured By The Cheapness Of Provisions And Labour.

Nothing Endears So Much A Friend As Sorrow For His Death. The Pleasure Of His Company Has Not So Powerful An Influence.

The Whole Of Natural Theologyresolves Itself Into One Simple, Though Somewhat Ambiguous Proposition, That The Cause Or Causesof Order In The Universe Probably Bear Some Remote Analogy To Human Intelligence.

Every Court Of Criminal Justice Must Have The Power Of Correcting The Greatest And Dangerous Of All Abuses Of The Forms Of Law - That Of The Protracted Imprisonment Of The Accused, Untried, Perhaps Not Intended Ever To Be Tried, It May Be, Not Informed Of The Nature Of The Charge Against Him, Or The Name Of The Accuser.

It Is Not Contrary To Reason To Prefer The Destruction Of The Whole World To The Scratching Of My Finger.

Human Happiness Seems To Consist In Three Ingredients: Action, Pleasure And Indolence.

..all Arguments Concerning Existence Are Founded On The Relation Of Cause And Effect; That Our Knowledge Of That Relation Is Derived Entirely From Experience; And All Our Experimental Conclusions Proceed Upon The Supposition That The Future Will Be Conformable To The Past. .... Without The Influence Of Custom, We Should Be Entirely Ignorant Of Every Matter Of Fact Beyond What Is Immediately Present To The Memory And Senses.

Words Of Wisdom

Battles, Revolutions, Pestilence, Famine, And Death, Are Never The Effect Of Those Natural Causes, Which We Experience. Prodigies,omens, Oracles, Judgments, Quite Obscure The Few Natural Events, That Are Intermingled With Them. But As The Former Grow Thinner Every Pagewe Soon Learn, That There Is Nothing Mysterious Or Supernatural In The Case, But That All Proceeds From The Usual Propensity Of Mankind Towards The Marvellous, And That, Though This Inclination May At Intervals Receive A Check From Sense And Learning, It Can Never Be Thoroughly Extirpated.

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

It Is More Rational To Suspect Knavery And Folly Than To Discount, At A Stroke, Everything That Past Experience Has Taught Me About The Way Things Actually Work

Every Disastrous Accident Alarms Us, And Sets Us On Enquiries Concerning The Principles Whence It Arose: Apprehensions Spring Up With Regard To Futurity: And The Mind, Sunk Into Diffidence, Terror, And Melancholy, Has Recourse To Every Method Of Appeasing Those Secret Intelligent Powers, On Whom Our Fortune Is Supposed Entirely To Depend.

There Is A Set Of Harmless Liars, Frequently To Be Met With In Company, Who Deal Much In The Marvellous. Their Usual Intention Is To Please And Entertain; But As Men Are Most Delighted With What They Conceive To Be The Truth, These People Mistake The Means Of Pleasing, And Incur Universal Blame.

All Inferences From Experience... Are Effects Of Custom, Not Of Reasoning.

There Surely Is A Being Who Presides Over The Universe; And Who, With Infinite Wisdom And Power, Has Reduced The Jarring Elementsinto Just Order And Proportion. Let Speculative Reasoners Dispute, How Far This Beneficent Being Extends His Care, And Whether He Prolongs Our Existence Beyond The Grave, In Order To Bestow On Virtue Its Just Reward, And Render It Fully Triumphant.

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.

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. Nothing Indeed Can Be A Stronger Presumption Of Falsehood Than The Approbation Of The Multitude; And Phocion, You Know, Always Suspected Himself Of Some Blunder When He Was Attended With The Applauses Of The Populace.

If ... The Past May Be No Rule For The Future, All Experience Becomes Useless And Can Give Rise To No Inferences Or Conclusions.

Everything In The World Is Purchased By Labor.

.. That Which Renders Morality An Active Principle And Constitutes Virtue Our Happiness, And Vice Our Misery: It Is Probable, I Say, That This Final Sentence Depends On Some Internal Sense Or Feeling, Which Nature Has Made Universal In The Whole Species.

Such A Superiority Do The Pursuits Of Literature Possess Above Every Other Occupation, That Even He Who Attains But A Mediocrity In Them, Merits The Pre-eminence Above Those That Excel The Most In The Common And Vulgar Professions.

If Refined Sense, And Exalted Sense, Be Not So Useful As Common Sense, Their Rarity, Their Novelty, And The Nobleness Of Their Objects, Make Some Compensation, And Render Them The Admiration Of Mankind.

Philosophy Would Render Us Entirely Pyrrhonian, Were Not Nature Too Strong For It.

A Too Great Disproportion Among The Citizens Weakens Any State. Every Person, If Possible, Ought To Enjoy The Fruits Of His Labour, In A Full Possession Of All The Necessities, And Many Of The Conveniences Of Life. No One Can Doubt, But Such An Equality Is Most Suitable To Human Nature, And Diminishes Much Less From The Happiness Of The Rich Than It Adds To That Of The Poor.

Look Round This Universe. What An Immense Profusion Of Beings, Animated And Organized, Sensible And Active! You Admire This Prodigious Variety And Fecundity. But Inspect A Little More Narrowly These Living Existences, The Only Beings Worth Regarding. How Hostile And Destructive To Each Other! How Insufficient All Of Them For Their Own Happiness! How Contemptible Or Odious To The Spectator! The Whole Presents Nothing But The Idea Of A Blind Nature, Inpregnated By A Great Vivifying Principle, And Pouring Forth From Her Lap, Without Discernment Or Parental Care, Her Maimed And Abortive Children.

In This Sullen Apathy Neither True Wisdom Nor True Happiness Can Be Found.

If We Confine Ourselves To A General And Distant Reflection On The Ills Of Human Life, That Can Have No Effect To Prepare Us For Them. If By Close And Intense Meditation We Render Them Present And Intimate To Us, That Is The True Secret For Poisoning All Our Pleasures, And Rendering Us Perpetually Miserable.

We Make Allowance For A Certain Degree Of Selfishness In Men; Because We Know It To Be Inseparable From Human Nature, And Inherent In Our Frame And Constitution. By This Reflexion We Correct Those Sentiments Of Blame, Which So Naturally Arise Upon Any Opposition.

A Propensity To Hope And Joy Is Real Riches; One To Fear And Sorrow Real Poverty.

The Imagination Of Man Is Naturally Sublime, Delighted With Whatever Is Remote And Extraordinary, And Running, Without Control, Into The Most Distant Parts Of Space And Time In Order To Avoid The Objects, Which Custom Has Rendered Too Familiar To It.

It Seems Then, Say I, That You Leave Politics Entirely Out Of The Question, And Never Suppose, That A Wise Magistrate Can Justly Be Jealous Of Certain Tenets Of Philosophy, Such As Those Of Epicurus, Which, Denying A Divine Existence, And Consequently A Providence And A Future State, Seem To Loosen, In A Great Measure, The Ties Of Morality, And May Be Supposed, For That Reason, Pernicious To The Peace Of Civil Society.

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.

If Nature Has Been Frugal In Her Gifts And Endowments, There Is The More Need Of Art To Supply Her Defects. If She Has Been Generous And Liberal, Know That She Still Expects Industry And Application On Our Part, And Revenges Herself In Proportion To Our Negligent Ingratitude. The Richest Genius, Like The Most Fertile Soil, When Uncultivated, Shoots Up Into The Rankest Weeds; And Instead Of Vines And Olives For The Pleasure And Use Of Man, Produces, To Its Slothful Owner, The Most Abundant Crop Of Poisons.

The Whole Is A Riddle, An Enigma, An Inexplicable Mystery. Doubt, Uncertainty, Suspence Of Judgment Appear The Only Result Of Ourmost Accurate Scrutiny, Concerning This Subject. But Such Is The Frailty Of Human Reason, And Such The Irresistible Contagion Of Opinion, That Even This Deliberate Doubt Could Scarcely Be Upheld; Did We Not Enlarge Our View, And Opposing One Species Of Superstition To Another, Set Them A Quarrelling; While We Ourselves, During Their Fury And Contention, Happily Make Our Escape Into The Calm, Though Obscure, Regions Of Philosophy.

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.

The Supposition That The Future Resembles The Past, Is Not Founded On Arguments Of Any Kind, But Is Derived Entirely From Habit.

Words Of Wisdom

We Can Conceive A Thinking Being To Have Either Many Or Few Perceptions. Suppose The Mind To Be Reduced Even Below The Life Of Anoyster. Suppose It To Have Only One Perception, As Of Thirst Or Hunger. Consider It In That Situation. Do You Conceive Any Thing But Merely That Perception? Have You Any Notion Of Self Or Substance? If Not, The Addition Of Other Perceptions Can Never Give You That Notion.

The Gazing Populace Receive Greedily, Without Examination, Whatever Soothes Superstition And Promotes Wonder.

When Men Are Most Sure And Arrogant They Are Commonly Most Mistaken.

The Rules Of Morality Are Not The Conclusion Of Our Reason.

All Knowledge Resolves Itself Into Probability. ... In Every Judgment, Which We Can Form Concerning Probability, As Well As Concerning Knowledge, We Ought Always To Correct The First Judgment Deriv'd From The Nature Of The Object, By Another Judgment, Deriv'd From The Nature Of The Understanding.

A Purpose, An Intention, A Design, Strikes Everywhere Even The Careless, The Most Stupid Thinker.

Liberty Of Any Kind Is Never Lost All At Once.

Weakness, Fear, Melancholy, Together With Ignorance, Are The True Sources Of Superstition. Hope, Pride, Presumption, A Warm Indignation, Together With Ignorance, Are The True Sources Of Enthusiasm.

For My Part, When I Enter Most Intimately Into What I Call Myself, I Always Stumble On Some Particular Perception Or Other, Of Heat Or Cold, Light Or Shade, Love Or Hatred, Pain Or Pleasure. I Never Can Catch Myself At Any Time Without A Perception, And Never Can Observe Anything But The Perception.

[a Persons] Utmost Art And Industry Can Never Equal The Meanest Of Nature's Productions, Either For Beauty Or Value.

Examine The Religious Principles Which Have, In Fact, Prevailed In The World. You Will Scarcely Be Persuaded That They Are Other Than Sick Men's Dreams.

.. That A Rule, Which, In Speculation, May Seem The Most Advantageous To Society, May Yet Be Found, In Practice, Totally Pernicious And Destructive.

We Have No Other Notion Of Cause And Effect, But That Of Certain Objects, Which Have Always Conjoin'd Together, And Which In All Past Instances Have Been Found Inseparable. We Cannot Penetrate Into The Reason Of The Conjunction. We Only Observe The Thing Itself, And Always Find That From The Constant Conjunction The Objects Acquire An Union In The Imagination.

But I Would Still Reply, That The Knavery And Folly Of Men Are Such Common Phenomena, That I Should Rather Believe The Most Extraordinary Events To Arise From Their Concurrence, Than Admit Of So Signal A Violation Of The Laws Of Nature

An Infinite Number Of Real Parts Of Time, Passing In Succession, And Exhausted One After Another, Appears So Evident A Contradiction, That No Man, One Should Think, Whose Judgement Is Not Corrupted, Instead Of Being Improved, By The Sciences, Would Ever Be Able To Admit Of It.

It Affords A Violent Prejudice Against Almost Every Science, That No Prudent Man, However Sure Of His Principles, Dares Prophesy Concerning Any Event, Or Foretell The Remote Consequences Of Things.

It Forms A Strong Presumption Against All Supernatural And Miraculous Relations, That They Are Observed Chiefly To Abound Among Ignorant And Barbarous Nations; Or If A Civilized People Has Ever Given Admission To Any Of Them, That People Will Be Found To Have Received Them From Ignorant And Barbarous Ancestors.

Anticipation Of Pleasure Is, In Itself, A Very Considerable Pleasure.

I Shall Venture To Affirm, That There Never Was A Popular Religion, Which Represented The State Of Departed Souls In Such A Light,as Would Render It Eligible For Human Kind, That There Should Be Such A State. These Fine Models Of Religion Are The Mere Product Of Philosophy. For As Death Lies Between The Eye And The Prospect Of Futurity, That Event Is So Shocking To Nature, That It Must Throw A Gloom On All The Regions Which Lie Beyond It; And Suggest To The Generality Of Mankind The Idea Of Cerberus And Furies; Devils, And Torrents Of Fire And Brimstone.

Tis Evident That All Reasonings Concerning Matter Of Fact Are Founded On The Relation Of Cause And Effect, And That We Can Never Infer The Existence Of One Object From Another, Unless They Be Connected Together, Either Mediately Or Immediately... Here Is A Billiard Ball Lying On The Table, And Another Ball Moving Toward It With Rapidity. They Strike; And The Ball Which Was Formerly At Rest Now Acquires A Motion. This Is As Perfect An Instance Of The Relation Of Cause And Effect As Any Which We Know, Either By Sensation Or Reflection.

A Delicacy Of Taste Is Favorable To Love And Friendship, By Confining Our Choice To Few People, And Making Us Indifferent To The Company And Conversation Of The Greater Part Of Men.

He Sees Such A Desperate Rapaciousness Prevail; Such A Disregard To Equity, Such Contempt Of Order, Such Stupid Blindness To Future Consequences, As Must Immediately Have The Most Tragical Conclusion, And Most Terminate In Destruction To The Greater Number, And In A Total Dissolution Of Society To The Rest.

Upon The Whole, Necessity Is Something, That Exists In The Mind, Not In Objects; Nor Is It Possible For Us Ever To Form The Most Distant Idea Of It, Consider'd As A Quality In Bodies. Either We Have No Idea Of Necessity, Or Necessity Is Nothing But That Determination Of Thought To Pass From Cause To Effects And Effects To Causes, According To Their Experienc'd Union.

History Is The Discovering Of The Principles Of Human Nature.

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.

It Were Better, Never To Look Beyond The Present Material World. By Supposing It To Contain The Principle Of Its Order Within Itself, We Really Assert It To Be God; And The Sooner We Arrive At That Divinity, The Better.

Great Pleasures Are Much Less Frequent Than Great Pains.

Character Is The Result Of A System Of Stereotyped Principals.

When Men Are Most Sure And Arrogant They Are Commonly Most Mistaken, Giving Views To Passion Without That Proper Deliberation Which Alone Can Secure Them From The Grossest Absurdities.

To Be A Philosophical Sceptic Is, In A Man Of Letters, The First And Most Essential To Being A Sound, Believing Christian.

We May Well Ask, What Causes Induce Us To Believe In The Existence Of Body? But 'tis Vain To Ask. Whether There Be Body Or Not? That Is A Point Which We Must Take For Granted In All Our Reasonings.

It Must Appear Impossible, That Theism Could, From Reasoning, Have Been The Primary Religion Of Human Race, And Have Afterwards, By Its Corruption, Given Birth To Polytheism And To All The Various Superstitions Of The Heathen World. Reason, When Obvious, Prevents These Corruptions: When Abstruse, It Keeps The Principles Entirely From The Knowledge Of The Vulgar, Who Are Alone Liable To Corrupt Any Principle Or Opinion.

The Mention Of One Apartment In A Building Naturally Introduces An Enquiry Or Discourse Concerning The Others: And If We Think Ofa Wound, We Can Scarcely Forbear Reflecting On The Pain Which Follows It.

It Is A Certain Rule That Wit And Passion Are Entirely Incompatible. When The Affections Are Moved, There Is No Place For The Imagination.

What Is Easy And Obvious Is Never Valued; And Even What Is In Itself Difficult, If We Come To Knowledge Of It Without Difficulty, And Without And Stretch Of Thought Or Judgment, Is But Little Regarded.

The Great Subverter Of Pyrrhonism Or The Excessive Principles Of Scepticism Is Action, And Employment, And The Occupations Of Common Life.

An Established Government Has An Infinite Advantage, By That Very Circumstance Of Its Being Established--the Bulk Of Mankind Being Governed By Authority, Not Reason, And Never Attributing Authority To Anything That Has Not The Recommendation Of Antiquity.

But, Historians, And Even Common Sense, May Inform Us, That, However Specious These Ideas Of Perfect Equality May Seem, They Are Really, At Bottom, Impracticable; And Were They Not So, Would Be Extremely Pernicious To Human Society. Render Possessions Ever So Equal, Men's Different Degrees Of Art, Care, And Industry Will Immediately Break That Equality. Or If You Check These Virtues, You Reduce Society To The Most Extreme Indigence; And Instead Of Preventing Want And Beggary In A Few, Render It Unavoidable To The Whole Community.

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.

Every Movement Of The Theater By A Skilful Poet Is Communicated, As It Were, By Magic, To The Spectators; Who Weep, Tremble, Resent, Rejoice, And Are Inflamed With All The Variety Of Passions Which Actuate The Several Personages Of The Drama.

When Anyone Tells Me That He Saw A Dead Man Restored To Life, I Immediately Consider With Myself Whether It Be More Probable That This Person Should Either Deceive Or Be Deceived Or That The Fact Which He Relates Should Really Have Happened. I Weigh The One Miracle Against The Other And According To The Superiority Which I Discover, I Pronounce My Decision. Always I Reject The Greater Miracle. If The Falsehood Of His Testimony Would Be More Miraculous Than The Event Which He Relates, Then And Not Till Then, Can He Pretend To Command My Belief Or Opinion.

The Sweetest Path Of Life Leads Through The Avenues Of Learning, And Whoever Can Open Up The Way For Another, Ought, So Far, To Be Esteemed A Benefactor To Mankind.

The Heights Of Popularity And Patriotism Are Still The Beaten Road To Power And Tyranny; Flattery To Treachery; Standing Armies To Arbitrary Government; And The Glory Of God To The Temporal Interest Of The Clergy.

To Invent Without Scruple A New Principle To Every New Phenomenon, Instead Of Adapting It To The Old; To Overload Our Hypothesis With A Variety Of This Kind, Are Certain Proofs That None Of These Principles Is The Just One, And That We Only Desire, By A Number Of Falsehoods, To Cover Our Ignorance Of The Truth.

No Quality Of Human Nature Is More Remarkable, Both In Itself And In Its Consequences, Than That Propensity We Have To Sympathize With Others, And To Receive By Communication Their Inclinations And Sentiments, However Different From, Or Even Contrary To Our Own.

Were A Stranger To Drop On A Sudden Into This World, I Would Show Him, As A Specimen Of Its Ills, A Hospital Full Of Diseases, A Prison Crowded With Malefactors And Debtors, A Field Of Battle Strewed With Carcasses, A Fleet Foundering In The Ocean, A Nation Languishing Under Tyranny, Famine, Or Pestilence. To Turn The Gay Side Of Life To Him, And Give Him A Notion Of Its Pleasures; Whither Should I Conduct Him? To A Ball, To An Opera, To Court? He Might Justly Think, That I Was Only Showing Him A Diversity Of Distress And Sorrow.

In Public Affairs Men Are Often Better Pleased That The Truth, Though Known To Everybody, Should Be Wrapped Up Under A Decent Cover Than If It Were Exposed In Open Daylight To The Eyes Of All The World.

But It Is A Miracle That A Dead Man Should Come To Life; Because That Has Never Been Observed In Any Age Or Country.

The Consequence Of A Very Free Commerce Between The Sexes, And Of Their Living Much Together, Will Often Terminate In Intrigues And Gallantry.

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