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It Is An Absurdity To Believe That The Deity Has Human Passions, And One Of The Lowest Of Human Passions, A Restless Appetite For Applause
-David Hume
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It Is An Absurdity

David Hume
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It Is An Absurdity To Believe That The Deity Has Human Passions, And One Of The Lowest Of Human Passions, A Restless Appetite For Applause

Understanding the Quote: "it is an absurdity to believe that the deity has human passions,..."

This quote by David Hume reflects deeply on the theme of believe. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Believe, Passion, Deities, 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 believe and passion. 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.

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Topic
Believe
Passion
Deities
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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?
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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.
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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.
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It Forms A Strong Presumption Against All Supernatural And Miraculous Relations, That They Are Observed Chiefly To Abound Among Ignorant And Barbarous Nations; Or If A Civilized People Has Ever Given Admission To Any Of Them, That People Will Be Found To Have Received Them From Ignorant And Barbarous Ancestors.
Strong
People
Ignorant
Of All Sciences There Is None Where First Appearances Are More Deceitful Than In Politics.
Politics
Firsts
Appearance
Custom Is The Great Guide To Human Life.
Guides
Human Life
Humans
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.
Motivation
Littles
Judgment
What A Peculiar Privilege Has This Little Agitation Of The Brain Which We Call 'thought'.
Philosophical
Brain
Agitation
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
Passion
Ambition
Principles
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
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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
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
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Events
Scholastic Learning And Polemical Divinity Retarded The Growth Of All True Knowledge.
Philosophical
Growth
Divinity
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
No Man Ever Threw Away Life While It Was Worth Keeping.
Optimistic
Men
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.
Lying
Science
Reality
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
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
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
Manufacturers...gradually Shift Their Places, Leaving Those Countries And Provinces Which They Have Already Enriched, And Flying To Others, Whether They Are Allured By The Cheapness Of Provisions And Labour.
Country
Flying
Leaving
The First Ideas Of Religion Arose, Not From Contemplation Of The Works Of Nature, But From A Concern With Regard To The Events Of Life.
Ideas
Events
Firsts
Interest Is The Barometer Of The State.
States
Barometer
Interest
Everything In The World Is Purchased By Labor.
Philosophical
World
Labor
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
I Am Ready To Reject All Belief And Reasoning, And Can Look Upon No Opinion Even As More Probable Or Likely Than Another.
Looks
Belief
Opinion
It Cannot Reasonably Be Doubted, But A Little Miss, Dressed In A New Gown For A Dancing-school Ball, Receives As Complete Enjoyment As The Greatest Orator, Who Triumphs In The Splendour Of His Eloquence, While He Governs The Passions And Resolutions Of A Numerous Assembly.
Passion
School
Dancing
Morals And Criticism Are Not So Properly Objects Of The Understanding As Of Taste And Sentiment.
Understanding
Criticism
Taste
It Is Still Open For Me, As Well As You, To Regulate My Behavior, By My Experience Of Past Events.
Past
Events
Ethics
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
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
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.
Art
Kitsch
Taste
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
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.
Men
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The Difference Between A Man Who Is Led By Opinion Or Emotion And One Who Is Led By Reason. The Former, Whether He Will Or Not, Performs Things Of Which He Is Entirely Ignorant; The Latter Is Subordinate To No One, And Only Does Those Things Which He Knows To Be Of Primary Importance In His Life, And Which On That Account He Desires The Most; And Therefore I Call The Former A Slave, But The Latter Free.
Men
Differences
Words Of Wisdom
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.
Life
Death
Reflection
All Inferences From Experience... Are Effects Of Custom, Not Of Reasoning.
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Any Person Seasoned With A Just Sense Of The Imperfections Of Natural Reason, Will Fly To Revealed Truth With The Greatest Avidity.
Imperfection
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When Any Opinion Leads Us Into Absurdities, 'tis Certainly False; But 'tis Not Certain An Opinion Is False, Because 'tis Of Dangerous Consequence.
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A Propensity To Hope And Joy Is Real Riches; One To Fear And Sorrow Real Poverty.
Real
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Reason Is, And Ought Only To Be The Slave Of The Passions.
Philosophy
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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.
Philosophy
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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.
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God Is An Ever-present Spirit Guiding All That Happens To A Wise And Holy End.
Faith
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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.
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Color
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In Our Reasonings Concerning Matter Of Fact, There Are All Imaginable Degrees Of Assurance, From The Highest Certainty To The Lowest Species Of Moral Evidence. A Wise Man, Therefore, Proportions His Belief To The Evidence.
Wise
Men
Facts
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.
Communication
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Nothing Endears So Much A Friend As Sorrow For His Death. The Pleasure Of His Company Has Not So Powerful An Influence.
Powerful
Sorrow
Influence
The Gazing Populace Receive Greedily, Without Examination, Whatever Soothes Superstition And Promotes Wonder.
Gazing
Examination
Superstitions
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.
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[a Person’s] Utmost Art And Industry Can Never Equal The Meanest Of Nature's Productions, Either For Beauty Or Value.
Art
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Mortification
A Purpose, An Intention, A Design, Strikes Everywhere Even The Careless, The Most Stupid Thinker.
Stupid
Philosophical
Design
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.
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It Is Certain That The Easy And Obvious Philosophy Will Always, With The Generality Of Mankind, Have Preference Above The Accurate.
Philosophy
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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
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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
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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.
Christian
Religious
Miracle
The Ages Of Greatest Public Spirit Are Not Always Eminent For Private Virtue.
Age
Spirit
Virtue
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.
School
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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.
Lying
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Quality
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
Character Is The Result Of A System Of Stereotyped Principals.
Philosophical
Character
Results
Mohammed Praises [instances Of] Tretchery, Inhumanity, Cruelty, Revenge, And Bigotry That Are Utterly Incompatible With Civilized Society.
Revenge
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When We Reflect On The Shortness And Uncertainty Of Life, How Despicable Seem All Our Pursuits Of Happiness.
Happiness
Uncertainty Of Life
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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
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.
Real
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Science
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.
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It Is... A Just Political Maxim, That Every Man Must Be Supposed A Knave.
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Nothing Is More Surprising Than The Easiness With Which The Many Are Governed By The Few.
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The Life Of Man Is Of No Greater Importance To The Universe Than That Of An Oyster.
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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.
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The Law Always Limits Every Power It Gives.
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All This Creative Power Of The Mind Amounts To No More Than The Faculty Of Compounding, Transposing, Augmenting, Or Diminishing The Materials Afforded Us The By Senses And Experience.
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Creative
Mind
Friendship Is A Calm And Sedate Affection, Conducted By Reason And Cemented By Habit; Springing From Long Acquaintance And Mutual Obligations, Without Jealousies Or Fears, And Without Those Feverish Fits Of Heat And Cold, Which Cause Such An Agreeable Torment In The Amorous Passion.
Friendship
Passion
Long
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
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?
Mankind
Historian
Veracity
Virtue, Like Wholesome Food, Is Better Than Poisons, However Corrected.
Food
Poison
Virtue
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.
Teacher
Passion
Reflection
Beauty In Things Exists In The Mind Which Contemplates Them.
Positive
Beauty
Philosophical
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.
War
Men
Political
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.
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Morality
Virtue
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
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
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
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
To Hate, To Love, To Think, To Feel, To See; All This Is Nothing But To Perceive.
Hate
Philosophical
Thinking
It Is Not Contrary To Reason To Prefer The Destruction Of The Whole World To The Scratching Of My Finger.
Philosophical
World
Reason
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.
Independent
Numbers
Together
There Is Not To Be Found, In All History, Any Miracle Attested By A Sufficient Number Of Men, Of Such Unquestioned Good Sense, Education And Learning, As To Secure Us Against All Delusion In Themselves.
Learning
Men
Numbers
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
Truth Springs From Argument Amongst Friends.
Friendship
Spring
Philosophical
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
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.
History
Principles
Use
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
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.
Men
Gentleman
Curiosity
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
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.
Liberty
Revolution
Few Words
Time Is A Perishable Commodity.
Time Management
Management
Commodity
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
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.
Mistake
Nice
Mind
The Crusades - The Most Signal And Most Durable Monument Of Human Folly That Has Yet Appeared In Any Age Or Nation.
Age
Signals
Crusades
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
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
[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.
Men
Principles
Action
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
Beauty, Whether Moral Or Natural, Is Felt, More Properly Than Perceived.
Beauty
Philosophical
Moral
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.
Spiritual
Men
Hegel
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
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
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
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
Human Happiness Seems To Consist In Three Ingredients: Action, Pleasure And Indolence.
Happiness
Feelings
Three
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
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.
Imagination
Vivid
Spheres
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.
Friendship
Marriage
Strong
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
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.
War
Loss
Luxury
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.
Knowledge
Science
Understanding
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
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.
Sentimental
Vain
Cases
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
I Do Not Have Enough Faith To Believe There Is No God.
Believe
Enough
There Is No God
Absolute Monarchy,... Is The Easiest Death, The True Euthanasia Of The British Constitution.
Death
Constitution
Euthanasia
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 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
When I Turn My Eye Inward, I Find Nothing But Doubt And Ignorance. All The World Conspires To Oppose And Contradict Me; Though Such Is My Weakness, That I Feel All My Opinions Loosen And Fall Of Themselves, When Unsupported By The Approbation Of Others.
Fall
Eye
Ignorance
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
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
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.
Lying
Moving
Reflection
How Can We Satisfy Ourselves Without Going On In Infinitum? And, After All, What Satisfaction Is There In That Infinite Progression? Let Us Remember The Story Of The Indian Philosopher And His Elephant. It Was Never More Applicable Than To The Present Subject. If The Material World Rests Upon A Similar Ideal World, This Ideal World Must Rest Upon Some Other; And So On, Without End. It Were Better, Therefore, Never To Look Beyond The Present Material World.
Elephants
Looks
Stories
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.
Battle
Oracles
May
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
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.
Real
Passion
Government
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
Truth Is Disputable, Not Human Taste.
Taste
Truth Is
Humans
The Heights Of Popularity And Patriotism Are Still The Beaten Road To Power And Tyranny.
Peace
War
Philosophical
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.
Passion
Morality
Action
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
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.
Passion
Vanity
Degrees
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
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
The Unhappy Of All Men Is He Who Believes Himself To Be So.
Believe
Men
Unhappy
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
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
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
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
But To Proceed In This Reconciling Project With Regard To The Question Of Liberty And Necessity; The Most Contentious Question Of Metaphysics, The Most Contentious Science.
Liberty
Free Will
Projects
Art May Make A Suite Of Clothes, But Nature Must Produce A Man.
Art
Nature
Men
Uncommon Expressions Are A Disfigurement Rather Than An Embellishment Of Discourse.
Expression
Style
Embellishment
Every Movement Of The Theater By A Skilful Poet Is Communicated, As It Were, By Magic, To The Spectators; Who Weep, Tremble, Resent, Rejoice, And Are Inflamed With All The Variety Of Passions Which Actuate The Several Personages Of The Drama.
Drama
Passion
Magic
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
Enthusiasm Produces The Most Cruel Disorders In Human Society; But Its Fury Is Like That Of Thunder And Tempest, Which Exhaust Themselves In A Little Time, And Leave The Air More Calm And Serene Than Before.
Air
Littles
Enthusiasm
Rousseau Was Mad But Influential; Hume Was Sane But Had No Followers.
Mad
Followers
Influential
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
The Heart Of Man Is Made To Reconcile The Most Glaring Contradictions.
Heart
Men
Contradiction
Poets Themselves, Tho' Liars By Profession, Always Endeavour To Give An Air Of Truth To Their Fictions.
Liars
Air
Giving
... 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.
Wise
Intelligent
Ideas
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.
Ties
May
Belief
Though Men Of Delicate Taste Be Rare, They Are Easily To Be Distinguished In Society By The Soundness Of Their Understanding, And The Superiority Of Their Faculties Above The Rest Of Mankind.
Men
Understanding
Culture
Fine Writing, According To Mr. Addison, Consists Of Sentiments Which Are Natural Without Being Obvious.
Writing
Natural
Fine
The Bigotry Of Theologians Is A Malady Which Seems Almost Incurable.
Theologian
Malady
Seems
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.
Selfless
Sun
Tomorrow
In This Sullen Apathy Neither True Wisdom Nor True Happiness Can Be Found.
Empathy
Apathy
Sullen
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
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.
Dream
Religious
Men
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
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
When Men Are Most Sure And Arrogant They Are Commonly Most Mistaken.
Men
Stupidity
Arrogance
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
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
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.
Art
Men
Ideas
In All Determinations Of Morality, This Circumstance Of Public Utility Is Ever Principally In View; And Wherever Disputes Arise, Either In Philosophy Or Common Life, Concerning The Bounds Of Duty, The Questions Cannot, By Any Means, Be Decided With Greater Certainty, Than By Ascertaining, On Any Side, The True Interests Of Mankind. If Any False Opinion, Embraced From Appearances, Has Been Found To Prevail; As Soon As Farther Experience And Sounder Reasoning Have Given Us Juster Notions Of Human Affairs, We Retract Our First Sentiment, And Adjust Anew The Boundaries Of Moral Good And Evil.
Determination
Philosophy
Mean
Luxury Is A Word Of Uncertain Signification, And May Be Taken In A Good As In A Bad Sense
Taken
Luxury
May
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
[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
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
It Is Not Reason Which Is The Guide Of Life, But Custom.
Life
Reason
Guides
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
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
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.
Air
People
Victory
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
Men Often Act Knowingly Against Their Interest.
Philosophical
Men
Interest
The Most Lively Thought Is Still Inferior To The Dullest Sensation.
Lazy
Lively
Stills
The Free Conversation Of A Friend Is What I Would Prefer To Any Environment.
Friendship
Environment
Conversation
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.
Determination
May
Might
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.
Philosophy
Character
Men
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.
Philosophy
Secret
Benefits
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.
Moving
Doe
Facts
To Philosopher And Historian The Madness And Imbecile Wickedness Of Mankind Ought To Appear Ordinary Events.
Stupidity
Events
Ordinary
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.
Past
Mirrors
Faithful
All Knowledge Degenerates Into Probability.
Knowledge
Science
Degenerates
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.
World
Littles
Ruins
...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
From Causes Which Appear Similar, We Expect Similar Effects. This Is The Sum Total Of All Our Experimental Conclusions.
Causes
Conclusion
Effects
Great Pleasures Are Much Less Frequent Than Great Pains.
Pain
Pleasure
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
The Richest Genius, Like The Most Fertile Soil, When Uncultivated, Shoots Up Into The Rankest Weeds.
Weed
Genius
Soil
History Is The Discovering Of The Principles Of Human Nature.
History
Principles
Human Nature
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
[priests Are] The Pretenders To Power And Dominion, And To A Superior Sanctity Of Character, Distinct From Virtue And Good Morals.
Character
Religion
Atheism
For The Purposes Of Life And Conduct, And Society, A Little Good Sense Is Surely Better Than All This Genius, And A Little Good Humour Than This Extreme Sensibility.
Purpose
Genius
Littles
Trending Author
Wavy Gravy
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Category
Information