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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.

-David Hume

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The Greatest Crimes Have

David Hume

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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.

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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.

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

Between Married Persons, The Cement Of Friendship Is By The Laws Supposed So Strong As To Abolish All Division Of Possessions: Andhas Often, In Reality, The Force Ascribed To It.

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

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

The Minds Of Men Are Mirrors To One Another, Not Only Because They Reflect Each Other's Emotions, But Also Because Those Rays Of Passions, Sentiments And Opinions May Be Often Reverberated, And May Decay Away By Insensible Degrees.

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

I Have Written On All Sorts Of Subjects... Yet I Have No Enemies; Except Indeed All The Whigs, All The Tories, And All The Christians.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

... If You Insist That The Inference Is Made By A Chain Of Reasoning, I Desire You To Produce That Reasoning. The Connection Between The Two Is Not Intuitive. There Is Required A Medium, Which May Enable The Mind To Draw Such An Inference, If Indeed It Be Drawn By Reasoning And Argument. What That Medium Is, I Must Confess, Passes My Comprehension; And It Is Incumbent On Those To Produce It, Who Assert That It Really Exists, And Is The Origin Of All Our Conclusions Concerning Matter Of Fact.

Words Of Wisdom

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.

Everything Is Sold To Skill And Labor; And Where Nature Furnishes The Materials, They Are Still Rude And Unfinished, Till Industry, Ever Active And Intelligent, Refines Them From Their Brute State, And Fits Them For Human Use And Convenience.

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

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.

Great Pleasures Are Much Less Frequent Than Great Pains.

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

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

The 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.

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.

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 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.

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

We Need Only Reflect On What Has Been Prov'd At Large, That We Are Never Sensible Of Any Connexion Betwixt Causes And Effects, And That 'tis Only By Our Experience Of Their Constant Conjunction, We Can Arrive At Any Knowledge Of This Relation.

Avarice, The Spur Of Industry.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Everything In The World Is Purchased By Labor.

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

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

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

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.

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

Anything That Is Conceivable Is Possible.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Custom, Then, Is The Great Guide Of Human Life. It Is That Principle Alone, Which Renders Our Experience Useful To Us, And Makes Us Expect, For The Future, A Similar Train Of Events With Those Which Have Appeared In The Past.

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.

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

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

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.

If Refined Sense, And Exalted Sense, Be Not So Useful As Common Sense, Their Rarity, Their Novelty, And The Nobleness Of Their Objects, Make Some Compensation, And Render Them The Admiration Of Mankind.

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

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?

Courage, Of All National Qualities, Is The Most Precarious; Because It Is Exerted Only At Intervals, And By A Few In Every Nation; Whereas Industry, Knowledge, Civility, May Be Of Constant And Universal Use, And For Several Ages, May Become Habitual To The Whole People.

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

The More Instances We Examine, And The More Care We Employ, The More Assurance Shall We Acquire, That The Enumeration, Which We Form From The Whole, Is Complete And Entire.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Truth Is Disputable, Not Human Taste.

Superstition Is An Enemy To Civil Liberty.

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

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.

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.

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.

Time Is A Perishable Commodity.

Time Management

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

And What Is The Greatest Number? Number One.

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.

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

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

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

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

Were A Man, Whom I Know To Be Honest And Opulent, And With Whom I Live In Intimate Friendship, To Come Into My House, Where I Am Surrounded With My Servants, I Rest Assured, That He Is Not To Stab Me Before He Leaves It, In Order To Rob Me Of My Silver Standish; And I No More Suspect This Event, Than The Falling Of The House Itself Which Is New, And Solidly Built And Founded.--but He May Have Been Seized With A Sudden And Unknown Frenzy.--so May A Sudden Earthquake Arise, And Shake And Tumble My House About My Ears.

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

Beauty In Things Exists In The Mind Which Contemplates Them.

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.

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

I Do Not Think A Philosopher Who Would Apply Himself So Earnestly To The Explaining The Ultimate Principles Of The Soul, Would Show Himself A Great Master In The Very Science Of Human Nature, Which He Pretends To Explain, Or Very Knowing In What Is Naturally Satisfactory To The Mind Of Man.

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

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

The 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

If The Religious Spirit Be Ever Mentioned In Any Historical Narration, We Are Sure To Meet Afterwards With A Detail Of The Miseries Which Attend It. And No Period Of Time Can Be Happier Or More Prosperous, Than Those In Which It Is Never Regarded Or Heard Of.

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.

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

The 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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Character Is The Result Of A System Of Stereotyped Principals.

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

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

Let Us Become Thoroughly Sensible Of The Weakness, Blindness, And Narrow Limits Of Human Reason: Let Us Duly Consider Its Uncertainty And Endless Contrarieties, Even In Subjects Of Common Life And Practice.... When These Topics Are Displayed In Their Full Light, As They Are By Some Philosophers And Almost All Divines; Who Can Retain Such Confidence In This Frail Faculty Of Reason As To Pay Any Regard To Its Determinations In Points So Sublime, So Abstruse, So Remote From Common Life And Experience?

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.

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.

There Is An Inconvenience Which Attends All Abstruse Reasoning. That It May Silence, Without Convincing An Antagonist, And Requires The Same Intense Study To Make Us Sensible Of Its Force, That Was At First Requisite For Its Invention. When We Leave Our Closet, And Engage In The Common Affairs Of Life, Its Conclusions Seem To Vanish, Like The Phantoms Of The Night On The Appearance Of The Morning; And 'tis Difficult For Us To Retain Even That Conviction, Which We Had Attain'd With Difficulty.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Custom Is The Great Guide To Human Life.

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

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

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

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.

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

..when, In My Philosophical Disquisitions, I Deny A Providence And A Future State, I Undermine Not The Foundations Of Society, But Advance Principles, Which They Themselves, Upon Their Own Topics, If They Argue Consistently, Must Allow To Be Solid And Satisfactory.

It Is Harder To Avoid Censure Than To Gain Applause.

For As To The Dispersing Of Books, That Circumstance Does Perhaps As Much Harm As Good: Since Nonsense Flies With Greater Celerity, And Makes Greater Impression Than Reason; Though Indeed No Particular Species Of Nonsense Is So Durable. But The Several Forms Of Nonsense Never Cease Succeeding One Another; And Men Are Always Under The Dominion Of Some One Or Other, Though Nothing Was Ever Equal In Absurdity And Wickedness To Our Present Patriotism.

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

'tis Certain That A Serious Attention To The Sciences And Liberal Arts Softens And Humanizes The Temper, And Cherishes Those Fine Emotions In Which True Virtue And Honor Consist. It Rarely, Very Rarely Happens That A Man Of Taste And Learning Is Not, At Least, An Honest Man, Whatever Frailties May Attend Him.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

The Most Pernicious Of All Taxes Are The Arbitrary.

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.

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

Nothing Is Pure And Entire Of A Piece. All Advantages Are Attended With Disadvantages. A Universal Compensation Prevails In All Conditions Of Being And Existence.

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

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.

A Man Posing For A Painting.

... 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.

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.

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.

In Public Affairs Men Are Often Better Pleased That The Truth, Though Known To Everybody, Should Be Wrapped Up Under A Decent Cover Than If It Were Exposed In Open Daylight To The Eyes Of All The World.

Municipal Laws Are A Supply To The Wisdom Of Each Individual; And, At The Same Time, By Restraining The Natural Liberty Of Men, Make Private Interest Submit To The Interest Of The Public.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Words Of Wisdom

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

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

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

Self-denial Is A Monkish Virtue.

[rousseau] Has Not Had The Precaution To Throw Any Veil Over His Sentiments; And As He Scorns To Dissemble His Contempt Of Established Opinions, He Could Not Wonder That All The Zealots Were In Arms Against Him.

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

The Mind Is A Kind Of Theater, Where Several Perceptions Successively Make Their Appearence; Pass, Re-pass, Glide Away, And Mingle In An Infinite Variety Of Postures And Situations.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

It Is Harder To Avoid Censure Than To Gain Applause; For This May Be Done By One Great Or Wise Action In An Age. But To Escape Censure A Man Must Pass His Whole Life Without Saying Or Doing One Ill Or Foolish Thing

It 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Even After The Observation Of The Frequent Conjunction Of Objects, We Have No Reason To Draw Any Inference Concerning Any Object Beyond Those Of Which We Have Had Experience.

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

But There Still Prevails, Even In Nations Well Acquainted With Commerce, A Strong Jealousy With Regard To The Balance Of Trade, And A Fear, That All Their Gold And Silver May Be Leaving Them. This Seems To Me, Almost In Every Case, A Groundless Apprehension; And I Should As Soon Dread, That All Our Springs And Rivers Should Be Exhausted, As That Money Should Abandon A Kingdom Where There Are People And Industry.

... 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.

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.

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