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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.

-David Hume

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It Is Seldom, That

David Hume

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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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Character Is The Result Of A System Of Stereotyped Principals.

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.

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

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

I Am Apt To Suspect The Negroes To Be Naturally Inferior To The Whites. There Scarcely Ever Was A Civilization Of Their Complexion, Nor Even Any Individual, Eminent Either In Action Or Speculation.

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

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

Uncertainty Of Life

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.

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.

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

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

He Sees Such A Desperate Rapaciousness Prevail; Such A Disregard To Equity, Such Contempt Of Order, Such Stupid Blindness To Future Consequences, As Must Immediately Have The Most Tragical Conclusion, And Most Terminate In Destruction To The Greater Number, And In A Total Dissolution Of Society To The Rest.

The 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.

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

Words Of Wisdom

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

...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.

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

A Wise Man Proportions His Belief To The Evidence.

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

The Fact That Different Cultures Have Different Practices No More Refutes [moral] Objectivism Than The Fact That Water Flows In Different Directions In Different Places Refutes The Law Of Gravity

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Eloquence, At Its Highest Pitch, Leaves Little Room For Reason Or Reflection, But Addresses Itself Entirely To The Desires And Affections, Captivating The Willing Hearers, And Subduing Their Understanding.

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

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.

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.

It Is A Great Mortification To The Vanity Of Man, That His Utmost Art And Industry Can Never Equal The Meanest Of Nature's Productions, Either For Beauty Or Value. Art Is Only The Under-workman, And Is Employed To Give A Few Strokes Of Embellishment To Those Pieces, Which Come From The Hand Of The Master.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Accurate And Just Reasoning Is The Only Catholic Remedy, Fitted For All Persons And All Dispositions; And Is Alone Able To Subvert That Abstruse Philosophy And Metaphysical Jargon, Which, Being Mixed Up With Popular Superstition, Renders It In A Manner Impenetrable To Careless Reasoners, And Gives It The Air Of Science And Wisdom.

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.

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.

Nothing Appears More Surprising To Those, Who Consider Human Affairs With A Philosophical Eye, Than The Easiness With Which The Many Are Governed By The Few; And The Implicit Submission, With Which Men Resign Their Own Sentiments And Passions To Those Of Their Rulers.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

The Sweetest Path Of Life Leads Through The Avenues Of Learning, And Whoever Can Open Up The Way For Another, Ought, So Far, To Be Esteemed A Benefactor To Mankind.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Superstition Is An Enemy To Civil Liberty.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Eloquence, When In Its Highest Pitch, Leaves Little Room For Reason Or Reflection.

A Man Posing For A Painting.

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.

Nothing Can Be More Real, Or Concern Us More, Than Our Own Sentiments Of Pleasure And Uneasiness; And If These Be Favourable To Virtue And Unfavourable To Vice, No More Can Be Requisite To The Regulation Of Our Conduct And Behavior.

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.

We Make Allowance For A Certain Degree Of Selfishness In Men; Because We Know It To Be Inseparable From Human Nature, And Inherent In Our Frame And Constitution. By This Reflexion We Correct Those Sentiments Of Blame, Which So Naturally Arise Upon Any Opposition.

There Is A Set Of Harmless Liars, Frequently To Be Met With In Company, Who Deal Much In The Marvellous. Their Usual Intention Is To Please And Entertain; But As Men Are Most Delighted With What They Conceive To Be The Truth, These People Mistake The Means Of Pleasing, And Incur Universal Blame.

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

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

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

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.

History Is The Discovering Of The Principles Of Human Nature.

To Invent Without Scruple A New Principle To Every New Phenomenon, Instead Of Adapting It To The Old; To Overload Our Hypothesis With A Variety Of This Kind, Are Certain Proofs That None Of These Principles Is The Just One, And That We Only Desire, By A Number Of Falsehoods, To Cover Our Ignorance Of The Truth.

While We Are Reasoning Concerning Life, Life Is Gone.

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.

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

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

When Anyone Tells Me That He Saw A Dead Man Restored To Life, I Immediately Consider With Myself Whether It Be More Probable That This Person Should Either Deceive Or Be Deceived Or That The Fact Which He Relates Should Really Have Happened. I Weigh The One Miracle Against The Other And According To The Superiority Which I Discover, I Pronounce My Decision. Always I Reject The Greater Miracle. If The Falsehood Of His Testimony Would Be More Miraculous Than The Event Which He Relates, Then And Not Till Then, Can He Pretend To Command My Belief Or Opinion.

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

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

Words Of Wisdom

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

The Conduct Of A Man, Who Studies Philosophy In This Careless Manner, Is More Truly Sceptical Than That Of Any One, Who Feeling Inhimself An Inclination To It, Is Yet So Over-whelm'd With Doubts And Scruples, As Totally To Reject It. A True Sceptic Will Be Diffident Of His Philosophical Doubts, As Well As Of His Philosophical Conviction; And Will Never Refuse Any Innocent Satisfaction, Which Offers Itself, Upon Account Of Either Of Them.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Such A Superiority Do The Pursuits Of Literature Possess Above Every Other Occupation, That Even He Who Attains But A Mediocrity In Them, Merits The Pre-eminence Above Those That Excel The Most In The Common And Vulgar Professions.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Reasoning From The Common Course Of Nature, And Without Supposing Any New Interposition Of The Supreme Cause, Which Ought Always To Be Excluded From Philosophy; What Is Incorruptible Must Also Be Ingenerable. The Soul, Therefore, If Immortal, Existed Before Our Birth: And If The Former Existence Noways Concerned Us, Neither Will The Latter.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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?

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.

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

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.

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

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

Custom Is The Great Guide To Human Life.

Nothing Exists Without A Cause, The Original Cause Of This Universe We Call God.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

It Were Better, Never To Look Beyond The Present Material World. By Supposing It To Contain The Principle Of Its Order Within Itself, We Really Assert It To Be God; And The Sooner We Arrive At That Divinity, The Better.

The Difference Between A Man Who Is Led By Opinion Or Emotion And One Who Is Led By Reason. The Former, Whether He Will Or Not, Performs Things Of Which He Is Entirely Ignorant; The Latter Is Subordinate To No One, And Only Does Those Things Which He Knows To Be Of Primary Importance In His Life, And Which On That Account He Desires The Most; And Therefore I Call The Former A Slave, But The Latter Free.

Words Of Wisdom

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

The Whole Is A Riddle, An Enigma, An Inexplicable Mystery. Doubt, Uncertainty, Suspence Of Judgment Appear The Only Result Of Ourmost Accurate Scrutiny, Concerning This Subject. But Such Is The Frailty Of Human Reason, And Such The Irresistible Contagion Of Opinion, That Even This Deliberate Doubt Could Scarcely Be Upheld; Did We Not Enlarge Our View, And Opposing One Species Of Superstition To Another, Set Them A Quarrelling; While We Ourselves, During Their Fury And Contention, Happily Make Our Escape Into The Calm, Though Obscure, Regions Of Philosophy.

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

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

We Can Conceive A Thinking Being To Have Either Many Or Few Perceptions. Suppose The Mind To Be Reduced Even Below The Life Of Anoyster. Suppose It To Have Only One Perception, As Of Thirst Or Hunger. Consider It In That Situation. Do You Conceive Any Thing But Merely That Perception? Have You Any Notion Of Self Or Substance? If Not, The Addition Of Other Perceptions Can Never Give You That Notion.

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

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.

Delicacy Of Taste Has The Same Effect As Delicacy Of Passion; It Enlarges The Sphere Both Of Our Happiness And Our Misery.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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 Law Always Limits Every Power It Gives.

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?

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.

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

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

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.

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?

.. 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.

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.

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

When We Reflect On 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.

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.

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.

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.

Truth Springs From Argument Amongst Friends.

What Praise Is Implied In The Simple Epithet Useful! What Reproach In The Contrary.

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

Perception Of Beauty

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

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.

Look Round This Universe. What An Immense Profusion Of Beings, Animated And Organized, Sensible And Active! You Admire This Prodigious Variety And Fecundity. But Inspect A Little More Narrowly These Living Existences, The Only Beings Worth Regarding. How Hostile And Destructive To Each Other! How Insufficient All Of Them For Their Own Happiness! How Contemptible Or Odious To The Spectator! The Whole Presents Nothing But The Idea Of A Blind Nature, Inpregnated By A Great Vivifying Principle, And Pouring Forth From Her Lap, Without Discernment Or Parental Care, Her Maimed And Abortive Children.

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.

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

Does A Man Of Sense Run After Every Silly Tale Of Hobgoblins Or Fairies, And Canvass Particularly The Evidence? I Never Knew Anyone, That Examined And Deliberated About Nonsense Who Did Not Believe It Before The End Of His Enquiries.

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

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

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.

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.

When Suicide Is Out Of Fashion We Conclude That None But Madmen Destroy Themselves; And All The Efforts Of Courage Appear Chimerical To Dastardly Minds ... Nevertheless, How Many Instances Are There, Well Attested, Of Men, In Every Other Respect Perfectly Discreet, Who, Without Remorse, Rage, Or Despair, Have Quitted Life For No Other Reason Than Because It Was A Burden To Them, And Have Died With More Composure Than They Lived?

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

... 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.

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.

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.

Obscurity, Indeed, Is Painful To The Mind As Well As To The Eye; But To Bring Light From Obscurity, By Whatever Labour, Must Needsbe Delightful And Rejoicing.

Truth Is Disputable, Not Human Taste.

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

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