Background Image
...
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.
-David Hume
...
Please Wait....
Translating....

Belief Is Nothing But

David Hume
...
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.

Understanding the Quote: "belief is nothing but a more vivid, lively, forcible, firm, steady conception..."

This quote by David Hume reflects deeply on the theme of vivid imagination. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Vivid Imagination, Able, Belief, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how David Hume interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About David Hume

David Hume is celebrated for insightful thoughts on vivid imagination and able. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 9
Topic
Vivid Imagination
Able
Belief
More From David Hume
All Power, Even The Most Despotic, Rests Ultimately On Opinion.
Opinion
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
Passion
Heart
Profound
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.
Law
Justice
Good Man
Grief And Disappointment Give Rise To Anger, Anger To Envy, Envy To Malice, And Malice To Grief Again, Till The Whole Circle Be Completed.
Disappointment
Grief
Circles
There Is No Such Thing As Freedom Of Choice Unless There Is Freedom To Refuse.
Choices
Freedom Of Choice
Refuse
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.
Simple
Order
Words Of Wisdom
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.
Men
Pay
Virtue
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.
Ambition
Men
Thinking
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.
Wise
Philosophy
Jealous
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.
Passion
Humility
Pride
The Rules Of Morality Are Not The Conclusion Of Our Reason.
Pregnancy
Ethics
Morality
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.
Race
Principles
World
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.
Men
Two
Heaven
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.
Happiness
Different
Three
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.
Order
Atheism
Unexpected
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.
Philosophy
Brain
Sound
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.
Eye
Men
World
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.
Truth
Ignorance
Numbers
The Free Conversation Of A Friend Is What I Would Prefer To Any Environment.
Friendship
Environment
Conversation
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.
Men
Order
Liberty
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.
Pain
Thinking
Reflection
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.
Wise
Government
People
When I Hear That A Man Is Religious, I Conclude He Is A Rascal!
Religious
Men
Rascals
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.
Agreement
Perfect
Doubt
Praise Never Gives Us Much Pleasure Unless It Concur With Our Own Opinion, And Extol Us For Those Qualities In Which We Chiefly Excel.
Giving
Quality
Opinion
This Avidity Alone, Of Acquiring Goods And Possessions For Ourselves And Our Nearest Friends, Is Insatiable, Perpetual, Universal, And Directly Destructive Of Society.
Possession
Goods
Insatiable
The Greatest Crimes Have Been Found, In Many Instances, To Be Compatible With A Superstitious Piety And Devotion; Hence It Is Justly Regarded As Unsafe To Draw Any Inference In Favor Of A Man's Morals, From The Fervor Or Strictness Of His Religious Exercises, Even Though He Himself Believe Them Sincere.
Religious
Believe
Exercise
Liberty Is A Blessing So Inestimable, That, Wherever There Appears Any Probability Of Recovering It, A Nation May Willingly Run Many Hazards, And Ought Not Even To Repine At The Greatest Effusion Of Blood Or Dissipation Of Treasure.
Running
Blessing
Blood
Truth Is Disputable; Not Taste: What Exists In The Nature Of Things Is The Standard Of Our Judgement; What Each Man Feels Within Himself Is The Standard Of Sentiment. Propositions In Geometry May Be Proved, Systems In Physics May Be Controverted; But The Harmony Of Verse, The Tenderness Of Passion, The Brilliancy Of Wit, Must Give Immediate Pleasure. No Man Reasons Concerning Another's Beauty; But Frequently Concerning The Justice Or Injustice Of His Actions.
Passion
Men
Giving
Men Are Much Oftener Thrown On Their Knees By The Melancholy Than By The Agreeable Passions.
Passion
Men
Knees
Nothing Is More Surprising Than The Easiness With Which The Many Are Governed By The Few.
Philosophy
Philosophical
Government
The Corruption Of The Best Things Gives Rise To The Worst.
Philosophical
Giving
Corruption
Your Corn Is Ripe Today; Mine Will Be So Tomorrow. 'tis Profitable For Us Both, That I Should Labour With You Today, And That You Should Aid Me Tomorrow.
Collaboration
Corn
Today
Nothing Is So Improving To The Temper As The Study Of The Beauties Either Of Poetry, Eloquence, Music, Or Painting.
Taste
Study
Painting
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.
Nature
Children
Science
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.
Life
Learning
Way
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.
Philosophy
Soul
Causes
Apart From The Representational Content Of An Idea There Is Another Component: Its Force And Vivacity, Its Impetus.
Ideas
Force
Vivacity
[priests Are] The Pretenders To Power And Dominion, And To A Superior Sanctity Of Character, Distinct From Virtue And Good Morals.
Character
Religion
Atheism
A Miracle Is A Violation Of The Laws Of Nature; And As A Firm And Unalterable Experience Has Established These Laws, The Proof Against A Miracle, From The Very Nature Of The Fact, Is As Entire As Any Argument From Experience Can Possibly Be Imagined.
Law
Miracle
Facts
Nothing Is More Dangerous To Reason Than The Flights Of The Imagination And Nothing Has Been The Occasion Of More Mistakes Among Philosophers.
Mistake
Imagination
Philosopher
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.
Doubt
Religion
Mystery
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.
Philosophy
Weakness
Elude
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.
Ambition
Thinking
Government
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.
Christian
Enemy
Subjects
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.
Discovery
Despair
Age
It Is A Certain Rule That Wit And Passion Are Entirely Incompatible. When The Affections Are Moved, There Is No Place For The Imagination.
Passion
Imagination
Affection
And Indeed Nothing But The Most Determined Scepticism, Along With A Great Degree Of Indolence, Can Justify This Aversion To Metaphysics. For If Truth Be At All Within The Reach Of Human Capacity, It Is Certain It Must Lie Very Deep And Abstruse: And To Hope We Shall Arrive At It Without Pains, While The Greatest Geniuses Have Failed With The Utmost Pains, Must Certainly Be Esteemed Sufficiently Vain And Presumptuous. I Pretend To No Such Advantage In The Philosophy I Am Going To Unfold, And Would Esteem It A Strong Presumption Against It, Were It So Very Easy And Obvious.
Strong
Pain
Philosophy
I Never Asserted Such An Absurd Thing As That Things Arise Without A Cause.
God
Causes
Absurd
God Is An Ever-present Spirit Guiding All That Happens To A Wise And Holy End.
Faith
Wise
Spirit
Self-denial Is A Monkish Virtue.
Self
Denial
Virtue
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.
Experience
Reason
Inference
No Conclusions Can Be More Agreeable To Scepticism Than Such As Make Discoveries Concerning The Weakness And Narrow Limits Of Human Reason And Capacity.
Discovery
Weakness
Limits
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.
Men
Selfishness
Degrees
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.
Book
Eye
Air
If ... The Past May Be No Rule For The Future, All Experience Becomes Useless And Can Give Rise To No Inferences Or Conclusions.
Future
Science
Past
To Hate, To Love, To Think, To Feel, To See; All This Is Nothing But To Perceive.
Hate
Philosophical
Thinking
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.
Ideas
Giving
Feelings
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.
Art
Hands
Ideas
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.
Jealousy
Passion
Violence
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.
Reflection
Understanding
Desire
Eloquence, When In Its Highest Pitch, Leaves Little Room For Reason Or Reflection.
Reflection
Littles
Rooms
Time Is A Perishable Commodity.
Time Management
Management
Commodity
The Simplest And Most Obvious Cause Which Can There Be Assigned For Any Phenomena, Is Probably The True One.
Words Of Wisdom
Causes
Obvious
The Minds Of Men Are Mirrors To One Another, Not Only Because They Reflect Each Other's Emotions, But Also Because Those Rays Of Passions, Sentiments And Opinions May Be Often Reverberated, And May Decay Away By Insensible Degrees.
Passion
Men
Mirrors
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.
Wise
Long
Silence
When I Think Of God, When I Think Of Him As Existent, And When I Believe Him To Be Existent, My Idea Of Him Neither Increases Nordiminishes. But As It Is Certain There Is A Great Difference Betwixt The Simple Conception Of The Existence Of An Object, And The Belief Of It, And As This Difference Lies Not In The Parts Or Composition Of The Idea Which We Conceive; It Follows, That It Must Lie In The Manner In Which We Conceive It.
God
Lying
Believe
What Praise Is Implied In The Simple Epithet Useful! What Reproach In The Contrary.
Simple
Praise
Epithet
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.
Swans
White
Black
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.
Thinking
Liberty
Fraud
Human Happiness Seems To Consist In Three Ingredients: Action, Pleasure And Indolence.
Happiness
Feelings
Three
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.
Real
Healing
Blood
All Inferences From Experience... Are Effects Of Custom, Not Of Reasoning.
Inference
Effects
Reasoning
From The Apparent Usefulness Of The Social Virtues, It Has Readily Been Inferred By Sceptics, Both Ancient And Modern, That All Moral Distinctions Arise From Education, And Were, At First, Invented, And Afterwards Encouraged ... In Order To Render Men Tractable, And Subdue Their Natural Ferocity And Selfishness, Which Incapacitated Them For Society.
Men
Order
Selfishness
Liberty Of Any Kind Is Never Lost All At Once.
Liberty
Kind
Lost
Beauty, Whether Moral Or Natural, Is Felt, More Properly Than Perceived.
Beauty
Philosophical
Moral
Habit May Lead Us To Belief And Expectation But Not To The Knowledge, And Still Less To The Understanding, Of Lawful Relations.
Expectations
Understanding
May
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?
Character
Law
Government
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.
Believe
Causes
Body
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.
Art
Arrogance
Mind
I Say Then, That 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. This Variety Of Terms, Which May Seem So Unphilosophical, Is Intended Only To Express That Act Of The Mind, Which Renders Realities, Or What Is Taken For Such, More Present To Us Than Fictions, Causes Them To Weigh More In The Thought, And Gives Them A Superior Influence On The Passions And Imagination.
Taken
Passion
Reality
But In Many Orders Of Beauty, Particularly Those Of The Finer Arts, It Is Requisite To Employ Much Reasoning, In Order To Feel The Proper Sentiment; And A False Relish May Frequently Be Corrected By Argument And Reflection. There Are Just Grounds To Conclude, That Moral Beauty Partakes Of This Latter Species, And Demands The Assistance Of Our Intellectual Faculties, In Order To Give It A Suitable Influence On The Human Mind.
Art
Reflection
Order
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.
Knowledge
Science
Needs
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.
Knowledge
Science
Numbers
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.
Understanding
Three
Fancy
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.
Book
Men
Wickedness
Of All The Animals With Which This Globe Is Peopled, There Is None Towards Whom Nature Seems, At First Sight, To Have Exercised More Cruelty Than Towards Man, In The Numberless Wants And Necessities With Which She Has Loaded Him, And In The Slender Means Which She Affords To The Relieving These Necessities.
Nature
Mean
Animal
Nothing Appears More Surprising To Those, Who Consider Human Affairs With A Philosophical Eye, Than The Easiness With Which The Many Are Governed By The Few; And The Implicit Submission, With Which Men Resign Their Own Sentiments And Passions To Those Of Their Rulers.
Philosophical
Passion
Eye
Custom Is The Great Guide To Human Life.
Guides
Human Life
Humans
Philosophy Would Render Us Entirely Pyrrhonian, Were Not Nature Too Strong For It.
Strong
Philosophy
Philosophical
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.
Ocean
Gay
Thinking
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.
Humility
Passion
Men
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.
God
Order
Rewards
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.
Determination
Real
Men
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.
Evil
Religion
Doe
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
Believe
Men
Law
No Truth Appears To Me More Evident Than That Beasts Are Endowed With Thought And Reason As Well As Men.
Men
Beast
Reason
If The Religious Spirit Be Ever Mentioned In Any Historical Narration, We Are Sure To Meet Afterwards With A Detail Of The Miseries Which Attend It. And No Period Of Time Can Be Happier Or More Prosperous, Than Those In Which It Is Never Regarded Or Heard Of.
Religious
Historical
Religion
The More Instances We Examine, And The More Care We Employ, The More Assurance Shall We Acquire, That The Enumeration, Which We Form From The Whole, Is Complete And Entire.
Care
Form
Assurance
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.
Wise
Opposites
Miracle
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
Past
Knavery
Way
The Supposition That The Future Resembles The Past, Is Not Founded On Arguments Of Any Kind, But Is Derived Entirely From Habit.
Past
Words Of Wisdom
Kind
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.
Men
Liberty
Ambitious
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.
Heart
Men
Order
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.
Two
Challenges
Foundation
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.
Pain
Passion
Would Be
I Do Not Think A Philosopher Who Would Apply Himself So Earnestly To The Explaining The Ultimate Principles Of The Soul, Would Show Himself A Great Master In The Very Science Of Human Nature, Which He Pretends To Explain, Or Very Knowing In What Is Naturally Satisfactory To The Mind Of Man.
Men
Thinking
Knowing
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.
Ignorance
Understanding
Obscurity
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.
Men
Luxury
People
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.
Talking
Mind
Identity
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.
Mistake
Liars
Mean
From Causes Which Appear Similar, We Expect Similar Effects. This Is The Sum Total Of All Our Experimental Conclusions.
Causes
Conclusion
Effects
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.
Strong
Color
Vices
Uncommon Expressions Are A Disfigurement Rather Than An Embellishment Of Discourse.
Expression
Style
Embellishment
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.
Intelligent
Skills
Rude
The Great Subverter Of Pyrrhonism Or The Excessive Principles Of Scepticism Is Action, And Employment, And The Occupations Of Common Life.
Principles
Employment
Occupation
Be A Philosopher But, Amid All Your Philosophy Be Still A Man.
Philosophy
Philosophical
Science
Barbarity, Caprice; These Qualities, However Nominally Disguised, We May Universally Observe From The Ruling Character Of The Deity In All Regular Religions.
Religious
Character
Evil
The Most Pernicious Of All Taxes Are The Arbitrary.
Arbitrary
Taxes
Pernicious
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.
Men
Honor
Age
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.
Government
Infinite
Reason
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
Wise
Men
Age
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.
Heart
Passion
Poetry
... If You Insist That The Inference Is Made By A Chain Of Reasoning, I Desire You To Produce That Reasoning. The Connection Between The Two Is Not Intuitive. There Is Required A Medium, Which May Enable The Mind To Draw Such An Inference, If Indeed It Be Drawn By Reasoning And Argument. What That Medium Is, I Must Confess, Passes My Comprehension; And It Is Incumbent On Those To Produce It, Who Assert That It Really Exists, And Is The Origin Of All Our Conclusions Concerning Matter Of Fact.
Two
Words Of Wisdom
Mind
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?
World
Stones
Coherence
It Is Certain That The Easy And Obvious Philosophy Will Always, With The Generality Of Mankind, Have Preference Above The Accurate.
Philosophy
Easy
Certain
Anything That Is Conceivable Is Possible.
Destiny
Absolute Monarchy,... Is The Easiest Death, The True Euthanasia Of The British Constitution.
Death
Constitution
Euthanasia
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.
Art
Philosophy
Political
A Purpose, An Intention, A Design, Strikes Everywhere Even The Careless, The Most Stupid Thinker.
Stupid
Philosophical
Design
.. That A Rule, Which, In Speculation, May Seem The Most Advantageous To Society, May Yet Be Found, In Practice, Totally Pernicious And Destructive.
Practice
May
Ethics
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.
Faithful
Age
Weakness
...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.
Past
Joy
Mind
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.
Race
Civilization
Action
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.
Beautiful
Science
Fabric
Delicacy Of Taste Has The Same Effect As Delicacy Of Passion; It Enlarges The Sphere Both Of Our Happiness And Our Misery.
Passion
Delicacy
Taste
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.
Vivid Imagination
Able
Belief
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.
Death
Afterlife
Being There
Reason Is, And Ought Only To Be The Slave Of The Passions.
Philosophy
Passion
Slave
Avarice, The Spur Of Industry.
Spurs
Industry
Avarice
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
Law
Practice
Water
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.
Men
People
Choices
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.
Law
Names
Justice
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.
Religious
Strong
Miracle
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.
Determination
Ideas
Mind
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.
Supposing That
Order
Principles
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.
Perception
Mind
Philosopher
And What Is The Greatest Number? Number One.
Philosophical
Numbers
Competition
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.
Religious
Atheism
Add
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.
Nature
Philosophy
Science
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.
Honesty
Fall
Men
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.
Passion
Men
Being Positive
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.
Pieces
Advantage
Existence
..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.
Memories
Past
Words Of Wisdom
Learning Has Been As Great A Loser By Being Shut Up In Colleges And Cells, And Secluded From The World And Good Company. By That Means, Every Thing Of What We Call Belles Lettres Became Totally Barbarous, Being Cultivated By Men Without Any Taste Of Life Or Manners, And Without That Liberty And Facility Of Thought And Expression, Which Can Only Be Acquir'd By Conversation.
Mean
Learning
College
I Cannot But Bless The Memory Of Julius Caesar, For The Great Esteem He Expressed For Fat Men And His Aversion To Lean Ones.
Memories
Men
Aversion
The Gazing Populace Receive Greedily, Without Examination, Whatever Soothes Superstition And Promotes Wonder.
Gazing
Examination
Superstitions
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?
Determination
Practice
Light
History Is The Discovering Of The Principles Of Human Nature.
History
Principles
Human Nature
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.
Acceptance
Men
Yield
Fine Writing, According To Mr. Addison, Consists Of Sentiments Which Are Natural Without Being Obvious.
Writing
Natural
Fine
Of The World And Drudgery Of Business , Seeks A Pretense Of Reason To Give Itself A Full And Uncontrolled Indulgence.
Giving
World
Reason
Beauty Is No Quality In Things Themselves: It Exists Merely In The Mind Which Contemplates Them; And Each Mind Perceives A Different Beauty.
Beauty
Mind
Quality
Let Us Consider What We Call Vicious Luxury. No Gratification, However Sensual, Can Of Itself Be Esteemed Vicious. A Gratification Is Only Vicious When It Engrosses All A Man's Expense, And Leaves No Ability For Such Acts Of Duty And Generosity As Are Required By His Situation And Fortune. The Same Care And Toil That Raise A Dish Of Peas At Christmas Would Give Bread To A Whole Family During Six Months.
Men
Luxury
Generosity
But It Is A Miracle That A Dead Man Should Come To Life; Because That Has Never Been Observed In Any Age Or Country.
Country
Men
Miracle
Truth Springs From Argument Amongst Friends.
Friendship
Spring
Philosophical
The Richest Genius, Like The Most Fertile Soil, When Uncultivated, Shoots Up Into The Rankest Weeds.
Weed
Genius
Soil
Interest Is The Barometer Of The State.
States
Barometer
Interest
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.
Ideas
Mind
Causes
The Stability Of Modern Governments Above The Ancient, And The Accuracy Of Modern Philosophy, Have Improved, And Probably Will Still Improve, By Similar Gradations.
Philosophy
Government
Ancient
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.
Strong
Spring
Rivers
Poets Themselves, Tho' Liars By Profession, Always Endeavour To Give An Air Of Truth To Their Fictions.
Liars
Air
Giving
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.
Passion
Imagination
Shade
That The Sun Shines Tomorrow Is A Judgement That Is As True As The Contrary Judgement.
Shining
Judgement
Sun
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
Curiosity
Example
Genius
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?
Suicide
Fashion
Men
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.
Real
Philosophical
Vices
In All Ages Of The World, Priests Have Been Enemies Of Liberty.
Enemy
Age
Liberty
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.
Men
Principles
Events
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.
Hurt
Army
Moon
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.
Pain
Kindness
Volunteer
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.
Courage
People
Quality
The Consequence Of A Very Free Commerce Between The Sexes, And Of Their Living Much Together, Will Often Terminate In Intrigues And Gallantry.
Sex
Men
Together
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.
Men
Reflection
Imperfection
He Is Happy Whom Circumstances Suit His Temper; But He Is More Excellent Who Suits His Temper To Any Circumstance.
Happiness
Suits
Excellent
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.
Novelty
Please
Accounts
It Is Not Contrary To Reason To Prefer The Destruction Of The Whole World To The Scratching Of My Finger.
Philosophical
World
Reason
[rousseau] Has Not Had The Precaution To Throw Any Veil Over His Sentiments; And As He Scorns To Dissemble His Contempt Of Established Opinions, He Could Not Wonder That All The Zealots Were In Arms Against Him.
Veils
Arms
Opinion
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.
Army
Government
Patriotism
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.
Wise
Men
Stronger
No Human Testimony Can Have Such Force As To Prove A Miracle, And Make It A Just Foundation For Any Such System Of Religion
Miracle
Foundation
Force
I Do Not Have Enough Faith To Believe There Is No God.
Believe
Enough
There Is No God
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?
Philosophical
Men
Magic
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?
Beauty
Reflection
Mind
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.
Death
Lying
Philosophy
The Senses Alone Are Not Implicitly To Be Depended On. We Must Correct Their Evidence By Reason, And By Considerations, Derived From The Nature Of The Medium, The Distance Of The Object, And The Disposition Of The Organ, In Order To Render Them, Within Their Sphere, The Proper Criteria Of Truth And Falsehood.
Distance
Order
Spheres
Avarice, Or The Desire Of Gain, Is A Universal Passion Which Operates At All Times, At All Places, And Upon All Persons.
Passion
Greed
Desire
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.
Men
Office
May
The Great End Of All Human Industry Is The Attainment Of Happiness
Ends
Attainment
Humans
We Learn The Influence Of Our Will From Experience Alone. And Experience Only Teaches Us, How One Event Constantly Follows Another; Without Instructing Us In The Secret Connexion, Which Binds Them Together, And Renders Them Inseparable.
Secret
Experience
Together
Trending Author
Joanna Newsom
Nick Denton
Dudley Nichols
James Lankford
Michael Jordan
Hans Christian Andersen
Category
Information