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

-David Hume

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Reason, In A Strict

David Hume

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

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A Man Posing For A Painting.

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.

[priests Are] The Pretenders To Power And Dominion, And To A Superior Sanctity Of Character, Distinct From Virtue And Good Morals.

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

..all Arguments Concerning Existence Are Founded On The Relation Of Cause And Effect; That Our Knowledge Of That Relation Is Derived Entirely From Experience; And All Our Experimental Conclusions Proceed Upon The Supposition That The Future Will Be Conformable To The Past. .... Without The Influence Of Custom, We Should Be Entirely Ignorant Of Every Matter Of Fact Beyond What Is Immediately Present To The Memory And Senses.

Words Of Wisdom

Anything That Is Conceivable Is Possible.

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

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?

It Is Harder To Avoid Censure Than To Gain Applause.

It Is Evident, From Their Method Of Propagation, That A Couple Of Cats, In Fifty Years, Would Stock A Whole Kingdom; And If That Religious Veneration Were Still Paid Them, It Would, In Twenty More, Not Only Be Easier In Egypt To Find A God Than A Man, Which Petronius Says Was The Case In Some Parts Of Italy; But The Gods Must At Last Entirely Starve The Men, And Leave Themselves Neither Priests Nor Votaries Remaining.

It Is 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

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

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.

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

Liberty Is A Blessing So Inestimable, That, Wherever There Appears Any Probability Of Recovering It, A Nation May Willingly Run Many Hazards, And Ought Not Even To Repine At The Greatest Effusion Of Blood Or Dissipation Of Treasure.

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.

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

What We Call A Mind Is Nothing But A Heap Or Collection Of Different Perceptions, United Together By Certain Relations And Supposed, Though Falsely, To Be Endowed With A Perfect Simplicity And Identity.

It 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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

A Too Great Disproportion Among The Citizens Weakens Any State. Every Person, If Possible, Ought To Enjoy The Fruits Of His Labour, In A Full Possession Of All The Necessities, And Many Of The Conveniences Of Life. No One Can Doubt, But Such An Equality Is Most Suitable To Human Nature, And Diminishes Much Less From The Happiness Of The Rich Than It Adds To That Of The Poor.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Truth Is Disputable, Not Human Taste.

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

An Established Government Has An Infinite Advantage, By That Very Circumstance Of Its Being Established--the Bulk Of Mankind Being Governed By Authority, Not Reason, And Never Attributing Authority To Anything That Has Not The Recommendation Of Antiquity.

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

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.

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

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.

While We Are Reasoning Concerning Life, Life Is Gone.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Men Often Act Knowingly Against Their Interest.

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.

We May Observe That, In Displaying The Praises Of Any Humane, Beneficent Man, There Is One Circumstance Which Never Fails To Be Amply Insisted On, Namely, The Happiness And Satisfaction, Derived To Society From His Intercourse And Good Offices.

No Advantages In This World Are Pure And Unmixed.

The Whole [of Religion] Is A Riddle, An ænigma, An Inexplicable Mystery. Doubt, Uncertainty, Suspence Of Judgment Appear The Onlyresult Of Our Most Accurate Scrutiny, Concerning This Subject.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Were A Stranger To Drop On A Sudden Into This World, I Would Show Him, As A Specimen Of Its Ills, A Hospital Full Of Diseases, A Prison Crowded With Malefactors And Debtors, A Field Of Battle Strewed With Carcasses, A Fleet Foundering In The Ocean, A Nation Languishing Under Tyranny, Famine, Or Pestilence. To Turn The Gay Side Of Life To Him, And Give Him A Notion Of Its Pleasures; Whither Should I Conduct Him? To A Ball, To An Opera, To Court? He Might Justly Think, That I Was Only Showing Him A Diversity Of Distress And Sorrow.

Everything In The World Is Purchased By Labor.

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.

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.

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.

A Little Philosophy Makes A Man An Atheist: A Great Deal Converts Him To Religion

There Surely Is A Being Who Presides Over The Universe; And Who, With Infinite Wisdom And Power, Has Reduced The Jarring Elementsinto Just Order And Proportion. Let Speculative Reasoners Dispute, How Far This Beneficent Being Extends His Care, And Whether He Prolongs Our Existence Beyond The Grave, In Order To Bestow On Virtue Its Just Reward, And Render It Fully Triumphant.

All That Belongs To Human Understanding, In This Deep Ignorance And Obscurity, Is To Be Sceptical, Or At Least Cautious, And Not To Admit Of Any Hypothesis Whatever, Much Less Of Any Which Is Supported By No Appearance Of Probability.

The 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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?

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

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

In A Vain Man, The Smallest Spark May Kindle Into The Greatest Flame, Because The Materials Are Always Prepared For It.

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.

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

The 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.

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

And Though The Philosopher May Live Remote From Business, The Genius Of Philosophy, If Carefully Cultivated By Several, Must Gradually Diffuse Itself Throughout The Whole Society, And Bestow A Similar Correctness On Every Art And Calling.

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.

Of All The Animals With Which This Globe Is Peopled, There Is None Towards Whom Nature Seems, At First Sight, To Have Exercised More Cruelty Than Towards Man, In The Numberless Wants And Necessities With Which She Has Loaded Him, And In The Slender Means Which She Affords To The Relieving These Necessities.

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.

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

The More Tremendous The Divinity Is Represented, The More Tame And Submissive Do Men Become His Ministers: And The More Unaccountable The Measures Of Acceptance Required By Him, The More Necessary Does It Become To Abandon Our Natural Reason, And Yield To Their Ghostly Guidance And Direction.

The Mention Of One Apartment In A Building Naturally Introduces An Enquiry Or Discourse Concerning The Others: And If We Think Ofa Wound, We Can Scarcely Forbear Reflecting On The Pain Which Follows It.

The 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.

The Stability Of Modern Governments Above The Ancient, And The Accuracy Of Modern Philosophy, Have Improved, And Probably Will Still Improve, By Similar Gradations.

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

Custom Is The Great Guide To Human Life.

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.

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.

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

There Is No God

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.

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?

A Miracle Is A Violation Of The Laws Of Nature; And As A Firm And Unalterable Experience Has Established These Laws, The Proof Against A Miracle, From The Very Nature Of The Fact, Is As Entire As Any Argument From Experience Can Possibly Be Imagined.

Upon The Whole, Necessity Is Something, That Exists In The Mind, Not In Objects; Nor Is It Possible For Us Ever To Form The Most Distant Idea Of It, Consider'd As A Quality In Bodies. Either We Have No Idea Of Necessity, Or Necessity Is Nothing But That Determination Of Thought To Pass From Cause To Effects And Effects To Causes, According To Their Experienc'd Union.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Battles, Revolutions, Pestilence, Famine, And Death, Are Never The Effect Of Those Natural Causes, Which We Experience. Prodigies,omens, Oracles, Judgments, Quite Obscure The Few Natural Events, That Are Intermingled With Them. But As The Former Grow Thinner Every Pagewe Soon Learn, That There Is Nothing Mysterious Or Supernatural In The Case, But That All Proceeds From The Usual Propensity Of Mankind Towards The Marvellous, And That, Though This Inclination May At Intervals Receive A Check From Sense And Learning, It Can Never Be Thoroughly Extirpated.

It Seems To Me, That The Only Objects Of The Abstract Sciences Or Of Demonstration Is Quantity And Number, And That All Attempts To Extend This More Perfect Species Of Knowledge Beyond These Bounds Are Mere Sophistry And Illusion.

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

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.

We Learn The Influence Of Our Will From Experience Alone. And Experience Only Teaches Us, How One Event Constantly Follows Another; Without Instructing Us In The Secret Connexion, Which Binds Them Together, And Renders Them Inseparable.

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

Words Of Wisdom

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

The Great Charm Of Poetry Consists In Lively Pictures Of The Sublime Passions, Magnanimity, Courage, Disdain Of Fortune; Or Thoseof The Tender Affections, Love And Friendship; Which Warm The Heart, And Diffuse Over It Similar Sentiments And Emotions.

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

Convulsions In Nature, Disorders, Prodigies, Miracles, Though The Most Opposite Of The Plan Of A Wise Superintendent, Impress Mankind With The Strongest Sentiments Of Religion.

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

But Would We Know, Whether The Pretended Prophet Had Really Attained A Just Sentiment Of Morals? Let Us Attend To His Narration; And We Shall Soon Find, That He Bestows Praise On Such Instances Of Treachery, Inhumanity, Cruelty, Revenge, Bigotry, As Are Utterly Incompatible With Civilized Society. No Steady Rule Of Right Seems There To Be Attended To; And Every Action Is Blamed Or Praised, So Far Only As It Is Beneficial Or Hurtful To The True Believers.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 Law Always Limits Every Power It Gives.

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.

In This Sullen Apathy Neither True Wisdom Nor True Happiness Can Be Found.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

When I Shall Be Dead, The Principles Of Which I Am Composed Will Still Perform Their Part In The Universe, And Will Be Equally Useful In The Grand Fabric, As When They Composed This Individual Creature. The Difference To The Whole Will Be No Greater Betwixt My Being In A Chamber And In The Open Air. The One Change Is Of More Importance To Me Than The Other; But Not More So To The Universe.

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.

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

Reason Is, And Ought Only To Be The Slave Of The Passions.

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.

Time Is A Perishable Commodity.

Time Management

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.

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

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

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

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

[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.

I Say Then, That Belief Is Nothing But A More Vivid, Lively, Forcible, Firm, Steady Conception Of An Object, Than What The Imagination Alone Is Ever Able To Attain. This Variety Of Terms, Which May Seem So Unphilosophical, Is Intended Only To Express That Act Of The Mind, Which Renders Realities, Or What Is Taken For Such, More Present To Us Than Fictions, Causes Them To Weigh More In The Thought, And Gives Them A Superior Influence On The Passions And Imagination.

The Advantages Found In History Seem To Be Of Three Kinds, As It Amuses The Fancy, As It Improves The Understanding, And As It Strengthens Virtue.

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.

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

I Shall Venture To Affirm, That There Never Was A Popular Religion, Which Represented The State Of Departed Souls In Such A Light,as Would Render It Eligible For Human Kind, That There Should Be Such A State. These Fine Models Of Religion Are The Mere Product Of Philosophy. For As Death Lies Between The Eye And The Prospect Of Futurity, That Event Is So Shocking To Nature, That It Must Throw A Gloom On All The Regions Which Lie Beyond It; And Suggest To The Generality Of Mankind The Idea Of Cerberus And Furies; Devils, And Torrents Of Fire And Brimstone.

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.

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.

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.

Truth Springs From Argument Amongst Friends.

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

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.

When Men Are Most Sure And Arrogant They Are Commonly Most Mistaken.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

The Greatest Crimes Have Been Found, In Many Instances, To Be Compatible With A Superstitious Piety And Devotion; Hence It Is Justly Regarded As Unsafe To Draw Any Inference In Favor Of A Man's Morals, From The Fervor Or Strictness Of His Religious Exercises, Even Though He Himself Believe Them Sincere.

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.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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