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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

-David Hume

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But I Would Still

David Hume

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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

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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.

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.

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?

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.

Truth Springs From Argument Amongst Friends.

Nothing Is So Improving To The Temper As The Study Of The Beauties Either Of Poetry, Eloquence, Music, Or Painting.

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

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.

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

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.

Habit May Lead Us To Belief And Expectation But Not To The Knowledge, And Still Less To The Understanding, Of Lawful Relations.

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.

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.

Vanity Is So Closely Allied To Virtue, And To Love The Fame Of Laudable Actions Approaches So Near The Love Of Laudable Actions For Their Own Sake, That These Passions Are More Capable Of Mixture Than Any Other Kinds Of Affection; And It Is Almost Impossible To Have The Latter Without Some Degree Of The Former.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

A Wise Man Proportions His Belief To The Evidence.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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

Human Nature Is The Only Science Of Man; And Yet Has Been Hitherto The Most Neglected.

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.

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.

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.

Self-denial Is A Monkish Virtue.

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.

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.

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.

Nothing Is More Surprising Than The Easiness With Which The Many Are Governed By The Few.

From Causes Which Appear Similar, We Expect Similar Effects. This Is The Sum Total Of All Our Experimental Conclusions.

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.

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

No Amount Of Observations Of White Swans Can Allow The Inference That All Swans Are White, But The Observation Of A Single Black Swan Is Sufficient To Refute That Conclusion.

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

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

[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.

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.

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.

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.

Reason, In A Strict Sense, As Meaning The Judgment Of Truth And Falsehood, Can Never, Of Itself, Be Any Motive To The Will, And Can Have No Influence But So Far As It Touches Some Passion Or Affection. Abstract Relations Of Ideas Are The Object Of Curiosity, Not Of Volition. And Matters Of Fact, Where They Are Neither Good Nor Evil, Where They Neither Excite Desire Nor Aversion, Are Totally Indifferent, And Whether Known Or Unknown, Whether Mistaken Or Rightly Apprehended, Cannot Be Regarded As Any Motive To Action.

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.

The End Of All Moral Speculations Is To Teach Us Our Duty; And, By Proper Representations Of The Deformity Of Vice And Beauty Of Virtue, Beget Correspondent Habits, And Engage Us To Avoid The One, And Embrace The Other.

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?

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.

If We Take In Our Hand Any Volume; Of Divinity Or School Metaphysics, For Instance; Let Us Ask, Does It Contain Any Abstract Reasoning Concerning Quantity Or Number? No. Does It Contain Any Experimental Reasoning Concerning Matter Of Fact And Existence? No. Commit It Then To The Flames: For It Can Contain Nothing But Sophistry And Illusion.

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.

The Simplest And Most Obvious Cause Which Can There Be Assigned For Any Phenomena, Is Probably The True One.

Words Of Wisdom

When We Reflect On Our Past Sentiments And Affections, Our Thought Is A Faithful Mirror, And Copies Its Objects Truly; But The Colours Which It Employs Are Faint And Dull, In Comparison Of Those In Which Our Original Perceptions Were Clothed.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Disbelief In Futurity Loosens In A Great Measure The Ties Of Morality, And May Be For That Reason Pernicious To The Peace Of Civil Society.

I Am Ready To Reject All Belief And Reasoning, And Can Look Upon No Opinion Even As More Probable Or Likely Than Another.

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.

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.

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 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.

The Law Always Limits Every Power It Gives.

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

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.

In All Ages Of The World, Priests Have Been Enemies Of 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.

The Heart Of Man Is Made To Reconcile The Most Glaring Contradictions.

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?

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

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.

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

That The Corruption Of The Best Thing Produces The Worst, Is Grown Into A Maxim, And Is Commonly Proved, Among Other Instances, By The Pernicious Effects Of Superstition And Enthusiasm, The Corruptions Of True Religion.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Men Often Act Knowingly Against Their Interest.

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

Nothing More Powerfully Excites Any Affection Than To Conceal Some Part Of Its Object, By Throwing It Into A Kind Of Shade, Whichat The Same Time That It Shows Enough To Prepossess Us In Favour Of The Object, Leaves Still Some Work For The Imagination.

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

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

There Is No God

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.

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.

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

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.

Time Is A Perishable Commodity.

Time Management

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.

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.

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

Everything In The World Is Purchased By Labor.

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

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.

Of All Sciences There Is None Where First Appearances Are More Deceitful Than In Politics.

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

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.

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.

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

There Is No Method Of Reasoning More Common, And Yet None More Blameable, Than, In Philosophical Disputes, To Endeavour The Refutation Of Any Hypothesis, By A Pretence Of Its Dangerous Consequences To Religion And Morality. When Any Opinion Leads To Absurdities, It Is Certainly False; But It Is Not Certain That An Opinion Is False, Because It Is Of Dangerous Consequence. Such Topics, Therefore, Ought Entirely To Be Forborne; As Serving Nothing To The Discovery Of Truth, But Only To Make The Person Of An Antagonist Odious.

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.

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.

..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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Men Are Much Oftener Thrown On Their Knees By The Melancholy Than By The Agreeable Passions.

And What Is The Greatest Number? Number One.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Avarice, The Spur Of Industry.

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.

Berkeley , Hume, Kant , Fichte , Hegel , James , Bergson All Are United In One Earnest Attempt, The Attempt To Reinstate Man With His High Spiritual Claims In A Place Of Importance In The Cosmic Scheme.

The Bigotry Of Theologians Is A Malady Which Seems Almost Incurable.

When Any Opinion Leads Us Into Absurdities, 'tis Certainly False; But 'tis Not Certain An Opinion Is False, Because 'tis Of Dangerous Consequence.

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.

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Rousseau Was Mad But Influential; Hume Was Sane But Had No Followers.

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

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

It 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.

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

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.

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.

In All Matters Of Opinion And Science ... The Difference Between Men Is ... Oftener Found To Lie In Generals Than In Particulars; And To Be Less In Reality Than In Appearance. An Explication Of The Terms Commonly Ends The Controversy, And The Disputants Are Surprised To Find That They Had Been Quarrelling, While At Bottom They Agreed In Their Judgement.

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

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

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.

Barbarity, Caprice; These Qualities, However Nominally Disguised, We May Universally Observe From The Ruling Character Of The Deity In All Regular Religions.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

... Superstitions, Which, Being Unable To Defend Themselves On Fair Ground, Raise These Intangling Brambles To Cover And Protect Their Weakness. Chased From The Open Country, These Robbers Fly Into The Forest, And Lie In Wait To Break In Upon Every Unguarded Avenue Of The Mind, And Overwhelm It With Religious Fears And Prejudices. ... The Idea Of God, As Meaning An Infinitely Intelligent, Wise And Good Being, Arises From Reflecting On The Operations Of Our Own Mind, And Augmenting, Without Limit, Those Qualities Of Goodness And Wisdom.

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.

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

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

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?

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.

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

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 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

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 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.

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

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

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

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.

Custom Is The Great Guide To Human Life.

Mohammed Praises [instances Of] Tretchery, Inhumanity, Cruelty, Revenge, And Bigotry That Are Utterly Incompatible With Civilized Society.

Character Is The Result Of A System Of Stereotyped Principals.

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.

The Corruption Of The Best Things Gives Rise To The Worst.

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.

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.

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.

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

Grief And Disappointment Give Rise To Anger, Anger To Envy, Envy To Malice, And Malice To Grief Again, Till The Whole Circle Be Completed.

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.

A Man Posing For A Painting.

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.

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.

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

Scholastic Learning And Polemical Divinity Retarded The Growth Of All True Knowledge.

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

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

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

And As This Is The Obvious Appearance Of Things, It Must Be Admitted, Till Some Hypothesis Be Discovered, Which By Penetrating Deeper Into Human Nature, May Prove The Former Affections To Be Nothing But Modifications Of The Latter. All Attempts Of This Kind Have Hitherto Proved Fruitless, And Seem To Have Proceeded Entirely From That Love Of Simplicity Which Has Been The Source Of Much False Reasoning In Philosophy.

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