Background Image

...

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.

-David Hume

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Battles, Revolutions, Pestilence, Famine,

David Hume

...

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.

Views: 6

Topic

More From David Hume

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.

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.

And Though The Philosopher May Live Remote From Business, The Genius Of Philosophy, If Carefully Cultivated By Several, Must Gradually Diffuse Itself Throughout The Whole Society, And Bestow A Similar Correctness On Every Art And Calling.

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.

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.

A Cause Is An Object Precedent And Contiguous To Another, And So United With It That The Idea Of The One Determines The Mind To Form The Idea Of The Other, And The Impression Of The One To Form A More Lively Idea Of The Other.

Liberty Of Any Kind Is Never Lost All At Once.

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

No One Can Doubt, That The Convention For The Distinction Of Property, And For The Stability Of Possession, Is Of All Circumstances The Most Necessary To The Establishment Of Human Society, And That After The Agreement For The Fixing And Observing Of This Rule, There Remains Little Or Nothing To Be Done Towards Settling A Perfect Harmony And Concord.

If Morality Had Naturally No Influence On Human Passions And Actions, It Were In Vain To Take Such Pains To Inculcate It; And Nothing Would Be More Fruitless Than That Multitude Of Rules And Precepts With Which All Moralists Abound.

The Whole [of Religion] Is A Riddle, An ænigma, An Inexplicable Mystery. Doubt, Uncertainty, Suspence Of Judgment Appear The Onlyresult Of Our Most Accurate Scrutiny, Concerning This Subject.

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.

Nothing Is Demonstrable, Unless The Contrary Implies A Contradiction. Nothing, That Is Distinctly Conceivable, Implies A Contradiction. Whatever We Conceive As Existent, We Can Also Conceive As Non-existent. There Is No Being, Therefore, Whose Non-existence Implies A Contradiction. Consequently There Is No Being, Whose Existence Is Demonstrable.

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

Reading And Sauntering And Lounging And Dosing, Which I Call Thinking, Is My Supreme Happiness.

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.

Any Person Seasoned With A Just Sense Of The Imperfections Of Natural Reason, Will Fly To Revealed Truth With The Greatest Avidity.

Nothing Can Be More Unphilosophical Than To Be Positive Or Dogmatical On Any Subject; And Even If Excessive Scepticism Could Be Maintained It Would Not Be More Destructive To All Just Reasoning And Inquiry. When Men Are The Most Sure And Arrogant, They Are Commonly The Most Mistaken, And Have There Given Reins To Passion, Without That Proper Deliberation And Suspense Which Can Alone Secure Them From The Grossest Absurdities.

Everything In The World Is Purchased By Labor.

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.

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.

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.

There Has Been A Controversy Started Of Late, Much Better Worth Examination, Concerning The General Foundation Of Morals; Whether They Be Derived From Reason, Or From Sentiment; Whether We Attain The Knowledge Of Them By A Chain Of Argument And Induction, Or By An Immediate Feeling And Finer Internal Sense; Whether, Like All Sound Judgement Of Truth And Falsehood, They Should Be The Same To Every Rational Intelligent Being; Or Whether, Like The Perception Of Beauty And Deformity, They Be Founded Entirely On The Particular Fabric And Constitution Of The Human Species.

Perception Of Beauty

I May Venture To Affirm The Rest Of Mankind, That They Are Nothing But A Bundle Or Collection Of Different Perceptions, Which Succeed Each Other With An Inconceivable Rapidity, And Are In A Perpetual Flux And Movement.

Truth Is Disputable, Not Human Taste.

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

...virtue Is Attended By More Peace Of Mind Than Vice, And Meets With A More Favourable Reception From The World. I Am Sensible, That, According To The Past Experience Of Mankind, Friendship Is The Chief Joy Of Human Life And Moderation The Only Source Of Tranquillity And Happiness.

Custom, Then, Is The Great Guide Of Human Life. It Is That Principle Alone, Which Renders Our Experience Useful To Us, And Makes Us Expect, For The Future, A Similar Train Of Events With Those Which Have Appeared In The Past.

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?

Between Married Persons, The Cement Of Friendship Is By The Laws Supposed So Strong As To Abolish All Division Of Possessions: Andhas Often, In Reality, The Force Ascribed To It.

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.

The Chief Benefit, Which Results From Philosophy, Arises In An Indirect Manner, And Proceeds More From Its Secret, Insensible Influence, Than From Its Immediate Application.

Interest Is The Barometer Of The State.

On The Theory Of The Soul's Mortality, The Inferiority Of Women's Capacity Is Easily Accounted For: Their Domestic Life Requires No Higher Faculties Either Of Mind Or Body. This Circumstance Vanishes And Becomes Absolutely Insignificant, On The Religious Theory: The One Sex Has An Equal Task To Perform As The Other: Their Powers Of Reason And Resolution Ought Also To Have Been Equal, And Both Of Them Infinitely Greater Than At Present.

The Religious Hypothesis, Therefore, Must Be Considered Only As A Particular Method Of Accounting For The Visible Phenomena Of The Universe: But No Just Reasoner Will Ever Presume To Infer From It Any Single Fact, And Alter Or Add To The Phenomena, In Any Single Particular.

..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.

There Is An Universal Tendency Among Mankind To Conceive All Beings Like Themselves, And To Transfer To Every Object, Those Qualities, With Which They Are Familiarly Acquainted, And Of Which They Are Intimately Conscious. We Find Human Faces In The Moon, Armies In The Clouds; And By A Natural Propensity, If Not Corrected By Experience And Reflection, Ascribe Malice Or Good-will To Every Thing, That Hurts Or Pleases Us.

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

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

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.

When I Am Convinced Of Any Principle, It Is Only An Idea Which Strikes More Strongly Upon Me. When I Give The Preference To One Set Of Arguments Above Another, I Do Nothing But Decide From My Feeling Concerning The Superiority Of Their Influence.

Morals Excite Passions, And Produce Or Prevent Actions. Reason Of Itself Is Utterly Impotent In This Particular. The Rules Of Morality, Therefore, Are Not Conclusions Of Our Reason.

When The Coherence Of The Parts Of A Stone, Or Even That Composition Of Parts Which Renders It Extended; When These Familiar Objects, I Say, Are So Inexplicable, And Contain Circumstances So Repugnant And Contradictory; With What Assurance Can We Decide Concerning The Origin Of Worlds, Or Trace Their History From Eternity To Eternity?

I Do Not Have Enough Faith To Believe There Is No God.

There Is No God

There Is A Very Remarkable Inclination In Human Nature To Bestow On External Objects The Same Emotions Which It Observes In Itself, And To Find Every Where Those Ideas Which Are Most Present To It.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

The Slaving Poor Are Incapable Of Any Principles: Gentlemen May Be Converted To True Principles, By Time And Experience. The Middling Rank Of Men Have Curiosity And Knowledge Enough To Form Principles, But Not Enough To Form True Ones, Or Correct Any Prejudices That They May Have Imbib'd: And 'tis Among The Middling Rank, That Tory Principles Do At Present Prevail Most In England.

This Avidity Alone, Of Acquiring Goods And Possessions For Ourselves And Our Nearest Friends, Is Insatiable, Perpetual, Universal, And Directly Destructive Of Society.

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.

But Would We Know, Whether The Pretended Prophet Had Really Attained A Just Sentiment Of Morals? Let Us Attend To His Narration; And We Shall Soon Find, That He Bestows Praise On Such Instances Of Treachery, Inhumanity, Cruelty, Revenge, Bigotry, As Are Utterly Incompatible With Civilized Society. No Steady Rule Of Right Seems There To Be Attended To; And Every Action Is Blamed Or Praised, So Far Only As It Is Beneficial Or Hurtful To The True Believers.

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

It Is... A Just Political Maxim, That Every Man Must Be Supposed A Knave.

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

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.

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

Liberty Of Thinking, And Of Expressing Our Thoughts, Is Always Fatal To Priestly Power, And To Those Pious Frauds On Which It Is Commonly Founded.

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

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.

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

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.

In All Ages Of The World, Priests Have Been Enemies To Liberty; And It Is Certain, That This Steady Conduct Of Theirs Must Have Been Founded On Fixed Reasons Of Interest And Ambition. Liberty Of Thinking, And Of Expressing Our Thoughts, Is Always Fatal To Priestly Power, And To Those Pious Frauds, On Which It Is Commonly Founded; And, By An Infallible Connexion, Which Prevails Among All Kinds Of Liberty, This Privilege Can Never Be Enjoyed, At Least Has Never Yet Been Enjoyed, But In A Free Government.

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.

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.

The Best Taxes Are Such As Are Levied Upon Consumptions, Especially Those Of Luxury; Because Such Taxes Are Least Felt By The People. They Seem, In Some Measure, Voluntary; Since A Man May Choose How Far He Will Use The Commodity: They Naturally Produce Sobriety And Frugality, If Judiciously Imposed: And Being Confounded With The Natural Price Of The Commodity, They Are Scarcely Perceived By The Consumers. Their Only Disadvantage Is That They Are Expensive In The Levying.

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

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.

Be A Philosopher But, Amid All Your Philosophy Be Still A Man.

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.

Methinks I Am Like A Man, Who Having Struck On Many Shoals, And Having Narrowly Escap'd Shipwreck In Passing A Small Frith, Has Yet The Temerity To Put Out To Sea In The Same Leaky Weather-beaten Vessel, And Even Carries His Ambition So Far As To Think Of Compassing The Globe Under These Disadvantageous Circumstances.

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.

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

It Is On Opinion Only That Government Is Founded; And This Maxim Extends To The Most Despotic And Most Military Governments, As Well As To The Most Free And Most Popular.

Happy The Man Whom Indulgent Fortune Allows To Pay To Virtue What He Owes To Nature, And To Make A Generous Gift Of What Must Otherwise Be Ravished From Him By Cruel Necessity.

We Need Only Reflect On What Has Been Prov'd At Large, That We Are Never Sensible Of Any Connexion Betwixt Causes And Effects, And That 'tis Only By Our Experience Of Their Constant Conjunction, We Can Arrive At Any Knowledge Of This Relation.

One Would Appear Ridiculous Who Would Say, That It Is Only Probable The Sun Will Rise To-morrow, Or That All Men Must Die; Thoughit Is Plain We Have No Further Assurance Of These Facts Than What Experience Affords Us.

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.

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

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.

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

Everything Is Sold To Skill And Labor; And Where Nature Furnishes The Materials, They Are Still Rude And Unfinished, Till Industry, Ever Active And Intelligent, Refines Them From Their Brute State, And Fits Them For Human Use And Convenience.

And What Is The Greatest Number? Number One.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Character Is The Result Of A System Of Stereotyped Principals.

Among The Arts Of Conversation No One Pleases More Than Mutual Deference Or Civility, Which Leads Us To Resign Our Own Inclinations To Those Of Our Companions, And To Curb And Conceal That Presumption And Arrogance So Natural To The Human Mind.

Nothing Indeed Can Be A Stronger Presumption Of Falsehood Than The Approbation Of The Multitude.

A Pleasant Comedy, Which Paints The Manners Of The Age, And Exposes A Faithful Picture Of Nature, Is A Durable Work, And Is Transmitted To The Latest Posterity. But A System, Whether Physical Or Metaphysical, Commonly Owes Its Success To Its Novelty; And Is No Sooner Canvassed With Impartiality Than Its Weakness Is Discovered.

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.

Were A Man, Whom I Know To Be Honest And Opulent, And With Whom I Live In Intimate Friendship, To Come Into My House, Where I Am Surrounded With My Servants, I Rest Assured, That He Is Not To Stab Me Before He Leaves It, In Order To Rob Me Of My Silver Standish; And I No More Suspect This Event, Than The Falling Of The House Itself Which Is New, And Solidly Built And Founded.--but He May Have Been Seized With A Sudden And Unknown Frenzy.--so May A Sudden Earthquake Arise, And Shake And Tumble My House About My Ears.

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.

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.

Morals And Criticism Are Not So Properly Objects Of The Understanding As Of Taste And Sentiment.

That The Sun Shines Tomorrow Is A Judgement That Is As True As The Contrary Judgement.

All The Sciences Have A Relation, Greater Or Less, To Human Nature; And...however Wide Any Of Them May Seem To Run From It, They Still Return Back By One Passage Or Another. Even Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, And Natural Religion, Are In Some Measure Dependent On The Science Of Man; Since They Lie Under The Cognizance Of Men, And Are Judged Of By Their Powers And Faculties.

Time Is A Perishable Commodity.

Time Management

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.

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.

In Our Reasonings Concerning Matter Of Fact, There Are All Imaginable Degrees Of Assurance, From The Highest Certainty To The Lowest Species Of Moral Evidence. A Wise Man, Therefore, Proportions His Belief To The Evidence.

The Richest Genius, Like The Most Fertile Soil, When Uncultivated, Shoots Up Into The Rankest Weeds.

Absolute Monarchy,... Is The Easiest Death, The True Euthanasia Of The British Constitution.

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.

If Suicide Be Supposed A Crime, It Is Only Cowardice Can Impel Us To It. If It Be No Crime, Both Prudence And Courage Should Engage Us To Rid Ourselves At Once Of Existence When It Becomes A Burden. It Is The Only Way That We Can Then Be Useful To Society, By Setting An Example Which, If Imitated, Would Preserve Every One His Chance For Happiness In Life, And Would Effectually Free Him From All Danger Or Misery.

Truth Springs From Argument Amongst Friends.

A Wise Man Proportions His Belief To The Evidence.

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

'tis Certain That A Serious Attention To The Sciences And Liberal Arts Softens And Humanizes The Temper, And Cherishes Those Fine Emotions In Which True Virtue And Honor Consist. It Rarely, Very Rarely Happens That A Man Of Taste And Learning Is Not, At Least, An Honest Man, Whatever Frailties May Attend Him.

[priests Are] The Pretenders To Power And Dominion, And To A Superior Sanctity Of Character, Distinct From Virtue And Good Morals.

Kitsch Is: A Species Of Beauty, Which, As It Is Florid And Superficial, Pleases At First; But Soon Palls Upon The Taste, And Is Rejected With Disdain, At Least Rated At Much Lower Value.

The Forming Of General Maxims From Particular Observation Is A Very Nice Operation; And Nothing Is More Usual, From Haste Or A Narrowness Of Mind, Which Sees Not On All Sides, Than To Commit Mistakes In This Particular.

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

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.

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.

We Find In The Course Of Nature That Though The Effects Be Many, The Principles From Which They Arise Are Commonly Few And Simple, And That It Is The Sign Of An Unskilled Naturalist To Have Recourse To A Different Quality In Order To Explain Every Different Operation.

Words Of Wisdom

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.

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

Nothing Is More Dangerous To Reason Than The Flights Of The Imagination And Nothing Has Been The Occasion Of More Mistakes Among Philosophers.

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

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

In The Sphere Of Natural Investigation, As In Poetry And Painting, The Delineation Of That Which Appeals Most Strongly To The Imagination, Derives Its Collective Interest From The Vivid Truthfulness With Which The Individual Features Are Portrayed.

A Man Posing For A Painting.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

If The Contemplation, Even Of Inanimate Beauty, Is So Delightful; If It Ravishes The Senses, Even When The Fair Form Is Foreign Tous: What Must Be The Effects Of Moral Beauty? And What Influence Must It Have, When It Embellishes Our Own Mind, And Is The Result Of Our Own Reflection And Industry?

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.

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.

[the Sceptic] Must Acknowledge, If He Will Acknowledge Any Thing, That All Human Life Must Perish, Were His Principles To Prevail.all Discourse, All Action Would Immediately Cease, And Men Remain In A Total Lethargy, Till The Necessities Of Nature, Unsatisfied, Put An End To Their Miserable Existence.

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.

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.

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.

The Great End Of All Human Industry Is The Attainment Of Happiness. For This Were Arts Invented, Sciences Cultivated, Laws Ordained, And Societies Modeled, By The Most Profound Wisdom Of Patriots And Legislators. Even The Lonely Savage, Who Lies Exposed To The Inclemency Of The Elements And The Fury Of Wild Beasts, Forgets Not, For A Moment, This Grand Object Of His Being.

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.

The Proper Office Of Religion Is To Regulate The Heart Of Men, Humanize Their Conduct, Infuse The Spirit Of Temperance, Order, Andobedience; And As Its Operation Is Silent, And Only Enforces The Motives Of Morality And Justice, It Is In Danger Of Being Overlooked, And Confounded With These Other Motives.

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.

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.

What Would Become Of History, Had We Not A Dependence On The Veracity Of The Historian, According To The Experience, What We Have Had Of Mankind?

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

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

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.

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.

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.

No Testimony Is Sufficient To Establish A Miracle, Unless The Testimony Be Of Such A Kind, That Its Falsehood Would Be More Miraculous Than The Fact Which It Endeavors To Establish.

Among Well Bred People A Mutual Deference Is Affected, Contempt For Others Is Disguised; Authority Concealed; Attention Given To Each In His Turn; And An Easy Stream Of Conversation Maintained Without Vehemence, Without Interruption, Without Eagerness For Victory, And Without Any Airs Of Superiority.

A Hundred Cabinet-makers In London Can Work A Table Or A Chair Equally Well; But No One Poet Can Write Verses With Such Spirit And Elegance As Mr. Pope.

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.

Words Of Wisdom

Even After The Observation Of The Frequent Conjunction Of Objects, We Have No Reason To Draw Any Inference Concerning Any Object Beyond Those Of Which We Have Had Experience.

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.

Luxury Is A Word Of Uncertain Signification, And May Be Taken In A Good As In A Bad Sense

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

To Have Recourse To The Veracity Of The Supreme Being, In Order To Prove The Veracity Of Our Senses, Is Surely Making A Very Unexpected Circuit.

The Advantages Found In History Seem To Be Of Three Kinds, As It Amuses The Fancy, As It Improves The Understanding, And As It Strengthens Virtue.

Tho' There Be No Such Thing As Chance In The World; Our Ignorance Of The Real Ccause Of Any Event Has The Same Influence On The Understanding, And Begets A Like Species Of Belief Or Opinion.

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.

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

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

All Sentiment Is Right; Because Sentiment Has A Reference To Nothing Beyond Itself, And Is Always Real, Wherever A Man Is Conscious Of It. But All Determinations Of The Understanding Are Not Right; Because They Have A Reference To Something Beyond Themselves, To Wit, Real Matter Of Fact; And Are Not Always Conformable To That Standard.

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

Uncertainty Of Life

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.

..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

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.

Art May Make A Suite Of Clothes, But Nature Must Produce A Man.

The More Tremendous The Divinity Is Represented, The More Tame And Submissive Do Men Become His Ministers: And The More Unaccountable The Measures Of Acceptance Required By Him, The More Necessary Does It Become To Abandon Our Natural Reason, And Yield To Their Ghostly Guidance And Direction.

Your Corn Is Ripe Today, Mine Will Be So Tomorrow. 'tis Profitable For Us Both That I Should Labor With You Today, And That You Should Aid Me Tomorrow. I Have No Kindness For You, And Know You Have As Little For Me. I Will Not, Therefore, Take Any Pains Upon Your Account . . . Here Then I Leave You To Labor Alone; You Treat Me In The Same Manner. The Seasons Change, And Both Of Us Lose Our Harvests For Want Of Mutual Confidence And Security.

How Could Politics Be A Science, If Laws And Forms Of Government Had Not A Uniform Influence Upon Society? Where Would Be The Foundation Of Morals, If Particular Characters Had No Certain Or Determinate Power To Produce Particular Sentiments, And If These Sentiments Had No Constant Operation On Actions?

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

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.

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.

For The Purposes Of Life And Conduct, And Society, A Little Good Sense Is Surely Better Than All This Genius, And A Little Good Humour Than This Extreme Sensibility.

What A Peculiar Privilege Has This Little Agitation Of The Brain Which We Call 'thought'.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

A Tory..., Since The Revolution, May Be Defined In A Few Words, To Be A Lover Of Monarchy, Though Without Abandoning Liberty; Anda Partizan Of The Family Of Stuart. As A Whig May Be Defined To Be A Lover Of Liberty Though Without Renouncing Monarchy; And A Friend To The Settlement In The Protestant Line.

Superstition Is An Enemy To Civil Liberty.

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

.. The Voice Of Nature And Experience Seems Plainly To Oppose The Selfish Theory.

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

There Is Only One Vice, Which May Be Found In Life With As Strong Features, And As High A Colouring As Needs Be Employed By Any Satyrist Or Comic Poet; And That Is Avarice.

Few Enjoyments Are Given From The Open And Liberal Hand Of Nature; But By Art, Labor And Industry We Can Extract Them In Great Abundance. Hence, The Ideas Of Property Become Necessary In All Civil Society.

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.

Anything That Is Conceivable Is Possible.

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

Let Us Become Thoroughly Sensible Of The Weakness, Blindness, And Narrow Limits Of Human Reason: Let Us Duly Consider Its Uncertainty And Endless Contrarieties, Even In Subjects Of Common Life And Practice.... When These Topics Are Displayed In Their Full Light, As They Are By Some Philosophers And Almost All Divines; Who Can Retain Such Confidence In This Frail Faculty Of Reason As To Pay Any Regard To Its Determinations In Points So Sublime, So Abstruse, So Remote From Common Life And Experience?

Nothing Is Pure And Entire Of A Piece. All Advantages Are Attended With Disadvantages. A Universal Compensation Prevails In All Conditions Of Being And Existence.

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

Trending Author

Kenneth Grahame

Virchand Gandhi

Claudia Schiffer

Category