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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.

-David Hume

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Human Happiness Seems To

David Hume

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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.

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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.

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

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.

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

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

The 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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

The Great End Of All Human Industry Is The Attainment Of Happiness

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.

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.

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

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

The Law Always Limits Every Power It Gives.

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

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

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

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.

Interest Is The Barometer Of The State.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Everything In The World Is Purchased By Labor.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Men Often Act Knowingly Against Their Interest.

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

The Most Lively Thought Is Still Inferior To The Dullest Sensation.

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.

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

Words Of Wisdom

Eloquence, When At Its Highest Pitch, Leaves Little Room For Reason Or Reflection; But Addressing Itself Entirely To The Fancy Or The Affections, Captivates The Willing Hearers, And Subdues Their Understanding. Happily, This Pitch It Seldom Attains. But What A Tully Or A Demosthenes Could Scarcely Effect Over A Roman Or Athenian Audience, Every Capuchin, Every Itinerant Or Stationary Teacher Can Perform Over The Generality Of Mankind, And In A Higher Degree, By Touching Such Gross And Vulgar Passions.

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

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

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.

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

Superstition Is An Enemy To Civil Liberty.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Though Experience Be Our Only Guide In Reasoning Concerning Matters Of Fact; It Must Be Acknowledged, That This Guide Is Not Altogether Infallible, But In Some Cases Is Apt To Lead Us Into Errors.

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

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

The Most Pernicious Of All Taxes Are The Arbitrary.

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.

There Is, Indeed A More Mitigated Scepticism Or Academical Philosophy, Which May Be Both Durable And Useful, And Which May, In Part, Be The Result Of This Pyrrhonism, Or Excessive Scepticism, When Its Undistinguished Doubts Are Corrected By Common Sense And Reflection.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Mankind Are So Much The Same, In All Times And Places, That History Informs Us Of Nothing New Or Strange In This Particular. Its Chief Use Is Only To Discover The Constant And Universal Principles Of Human Nature.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

The Heroes In Paganism Correspond Exactly To The Saints In Popery, And Holy Dervises In Mahometanism. The Place Of, Hercules, Theseus, Hector, Romulus, Is Now Supplied By Dominic, Francis, Anthony, And Benedict. Instead Of The Destruction Of Monsters, The Subduing Of Tyrants, The Defence Of Our Native Country; Whippings And Fastings, Cowardice And Humility, Abject Submission And Slavish Obedience, Are Become The Means Of Obtaining Celestial Honours Among Mankind.

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

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.

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.

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

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

There Is No Such Thing As Freedom Of Choice Unless There Is Freedom To Refuse.

Freedom Of Choice

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

It Is Still Open For Me, As Well As You, To Regulate My Behavior, By My Experience Of Past Events.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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

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

Reason Is, And Ought Only To Be The Slave Of The Passions, And Can Never Pretend To Any Other Office Than To Serve And Obey Them.

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

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.

No Truth Appears To Me More Evident Than That Beasts Are Endowed With Thought And Reason As Well As Men.

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

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.

The Free Conversation Of A Friend Is What I Would Prefer To Any Environment.

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.

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.

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?

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

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

[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.

Heroism, Or Military Glory, Is Much Admired By The Generality Of Mankind. They Consider It As The Most Sublime Kind Of Merit. Menof Cool Reflection Are Not So Sanguine In Their Praises Of It.

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

A Man Posing For A Painting.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The Christian Religion Not Only Was At First Attended With Miracles, But Even At This Day Cannot Be Believed By Any Reasonable Person Without One.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Time Is A Perishable Commodity.

Time Management

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.

... 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

We May Conclude, Therefore, That, In Order To Establish Laws For The Regulation Of Property, We Must Be Acquainted With The Nature And Situation Of Man; Must Reject Appearances, Which May Be False, Though Specious; And Must Search For Those Rules, Which Are, On The Whole, Most Useful And Beneficial.

Beauty Is No Quality In Things Themselves: It Exists Merely In The Mind Which Contemplates Them; And Each Mind Perceives A Different Beauty.

The Heights Of Popularity And Patriotism Are Still The Beaten Road To Power And Tyranny.

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.

But The Most Common Species Of Love Is That Which First Arises From Beauty, And Afterwards Diffuses Itself Into Kindness And Into The Bodily Appetite. Kindness Or Esteem, And The Appetite To Generation, Are Too Remote To Unite Easily Together. The One Is, Perhaps, The Most Refined Passion Of The Soul; The Other The Most Gross And Vulgar. The Love Of Beauty Is Placed In A Just Medium Betwixt Them, And Partakes Of Both Their Natures: From Whence It Proceeds, That It Is So Singularly Fitted To Produce Both.

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.

Great Pleasures Are Much Less Frequent Than Great Pains.

Almost Every One Has A Predominant Inclination, To Which His Other Desires And Affections Submit, And Which Governs Him, Though Perhaps With Some Intervals, Though The Whole Course Of His Life.

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

... 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.

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

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.

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.

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

Custom Is The Great Guide To Human Life.

While We Are Reasoning Concerning Life, Life Is Gone.

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

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

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.

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

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

..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

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.

Liberty Of Any Kind Is Never Lost All At Once.

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

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

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.

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

Truth Is Disputable, Not Human Taste.

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.

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.

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

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.

Words Of Wisdom

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.

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

Beauty, Whether Moral Or Natural, Is Felt, More Properly Than Perceived.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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