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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?

-David Hume

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To Consider The Matter

David Hume

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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?

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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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Let Us Fix Our Attention Out Of Ourselves As Much As Possible; Let Us Chase Our Imagination To The Heavens, Or To The Utmost Limits Of The Universe; We Never Really Advance A Step Beyond Ourselves, Nor Can Conceive Any Kind Of Existence, But Those Perceptions, Which Have Appeared In That Narrow Compass.

It Cannot Reasonably Be Doubted, But A Little Miss, Dressed In A New Gown For A Dancing-school Ball, Receives As Complete Enjoyment As The Greatest Orator, Who Triumphs In The Splendour Of His Eloquence, While He Governs The Passions And Resolutions Of A Numerous Assembly.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

When I Am Convinced Of Any Principle, It Is Only An Idea Which Strikes More Strongly Upon Me. When I Give The Preference To One Set Of Arguments Above Another, I Do Nothing But Decide From My Feeling Concerning The Superiority Of Their Influence.

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

There Is Nothing, In Itself, Valuable Or Despicable, Desirable Or Hateful, Beautiful Or Deformed; But That These Attributes Arise From The Particular Constitution And Fabric Of Human Sentiment And Affection.

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.

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

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

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

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.

And Whoever Is Moved By Faith To Assent To It, Is Conscious Of A Continued Miracle In His Own Person, Which Subverts All The Principles Of His Understanding, And Gives Him A Determination To Believe What Is Most Contrary To Custom And Experience.

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.

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

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

Nothing Is Demonstrable, Unless The Contrary Implies A Contradiction. Nothing, That Is Distinctly Conceivable, Implies A Contradiction. Whatever We Conceive As Existent, We Can Also Conceive As Non-existent. There Is No Being, Therefore, Whose Non-existence Implies A Contradiction. Consequently There Is No Being, Whose Existence Is Demonstrable.

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.

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

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

Character Is The Result Of A System Of Stereotyped Principals.

Beauty In Things Exists In The Mind Which Contemplates Them.

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.

Methinks I Am Like A Man, Who Having Struck On Many Shoals, And Having Narrowly Escap'd Shipwreck In Passing A Small Frith, Has Yet The Temerity To Put Out To Sea In The Same Leaky Weather-beaten Vessel, And Even Carries His Ambition So Far As To Think Of Compassing The Globe Under These Disadvantageous Circumstances.

To Have Recourse To The Veracity Of The Supreme Being, In Order To Prove The Veracity Of Our Senses, Is Surely Making A Very Unexpected Circuit.

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.

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

A Man Posing For A Painting.

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

From The Apparent Usefulness Of The Social Virtues, It Has Readily Been Inferred By Sceptics, Both Ancient And Modern, That All Moral Distinctions Arise From Education, And Were, At First, Invented, And Afterwards Encouraged ... In Order To Render Men Tractable, And Subdue Their Natural Ferocity And Selfishness, Which Incapacitated Them For Society.

The Chief Benefit, Which Results From Philosophy, Arises In An Indirect Manner, And Proceeds More From Its Secret, Insensible Influence, Than From Its Immediate Application.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Interest Is The Barometer Of The State.

... 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.

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.

Superstition Is An Enemy To Civil Liberty.

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

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.

Everything In The World Is Purchased By Labor.

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.

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

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.

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

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

What Peculiar Privilege Has This Little Agitation Of The Brain Which We Call Thought, That We Must Thus Make It The Model Of The Whole Universe? Our Partiality In Our Own Favour Does Indeed Present It On All Occasions; But Sound Philosophy Ought Carefully To Guard Against So Natural An Illusion.

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?

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

Nothing Can Be More Unphilosophical Than To Be Positive Or Dogmatical On Any Subject; And Even If Excessive Scepticism Could Be Maintained It Would Not Be More Destructive To All Just Reasoning And Inquiry. When Men Are The Most Sure And Arrogant, They Are Commonly The Most Mistaken, And Have There Given Reins To Passion, Without That Proper Deliberation And Suspense Which Can Alone Secure Them From The Grossest Absurdities.

All 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.

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.

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.

[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.

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

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.

Custom Is The Great Guide To Human Life.

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.

Luxury, Or A Refinement On The Pleasures And Conveniences Of Life, Had Long Been Supposed The Source Of Every Corruption In Government, And The Immediate Cause Of Faction, Sedition, Civil Wars, And The Total Loss Of Liberty. It Was, Therefore, Universally Regarded As A Vice, And Was An Object Of Declamation To All Satyrists, And Severe Moralists.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

When 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?

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

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

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.

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.

Time Is A Perishable Commodity.

Time Management

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

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

The Most Perfect Philosophy Of The Natural Kind Only Staves Off Our Ignorance A Little Longer: As Perhaps The Most Perfect Philosophy Of The Moral Or Metaphysical Kind Serves Only To Discover Larger Portions Of It. Thus The Observation Of Human Blindness And Weakness Is The Result Of All Philosophy, And Meets Us At Every Turn, In Spite Of Our Endeavours To Elude Or Avoid It.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

A Wise Man Proportions His Belief To The Evidence.

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

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

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

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.

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Curiosity, Or The Love Of Knowledge, Has A Very Limited Influence, And Requires Youth, Leisure Education, Genius And Example To Make It Govern Any Person

The 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.

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.

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

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

No Quality Of Human Nature Is More Remarkable, Both In Itself And In Its Consequences, Than That Propensity We Have To Sympathize With Others, And To Receive By Communication Their Inclinations And Sentiments, However Different From, Or Even Contrary To Our Own.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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 Feelings Of Our Heart, The Agitation Of Our Passions, The Vehemence Of Our Affections, Dissipate All Its Conclusions, And Reduce The Profound Philosopher To A Mere Plebeian

Any Pride Or Haughtiness, Is Displeasing To Us, Merely Because It Shocks Our Own Pride, And Leads Us By Sympathy Into Comparison, Which Causes The Disagreeable Passion Of Humility.

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

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.

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

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

And As This Is The Obvious Appearance Of Things, It Must Be Admitted, Till Some Hypothesis Be Discovered, Which By Penetrating Deeper Into Human Nature, May Prove The Former Affections To Be Nothing But Modifications Of The Latter. All Attempts Of This Kind Have Hitherto Proved Fruitless, And Seem To Have Proceeded Entirely From That Love Of Simplicity Which Has Been The Source Of Much False Reasoning In Philosophy.

Words Of Wisdom

While We Are Reasoning Concerning Life, Life Is Gone.

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.

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.

Self-denial Is A Monkish Virtue.

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 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.

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

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

All Knowledge Degenerates Into Probability.

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 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.

It Is Harder To Avoid Censure Than To Gain Applause.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

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

Your Corn Is Ripe Today; Mine Will Be So Tomorrow. 'tis Profitable For Us Both, That I Should Labour With You Today, And That You Should Aid Me Tomorrow.

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 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.

I Know With Certainty, That [an Honest Man] Is Not To Put His Hand Into The Fire, And Hold It There, Till It Be Consumed: And Thisevent, I Think I Can Foretell With The Same Assurance, As That, If He Throw Himself Out At The Window, And Meet With No Obstruction, He Will Not Remain A Moment Suspended In The Air.

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.

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.

All This Creative Power Of The Mind Amounts To No More Than The Faculty Of Compounding, Transposing, Augmenting, Or Diminishing The Materials Afforded Us The By Senses And Experience.

The Most Pernicious Of All Taxes Are The Arbitrary.

All Ills Spring From Some Vice, Either In Ourselves Or Others; And Even Many Of Our Diseases Proceed From The Same Origin. Remove The Vices; And The Ills Follow. You Must Only Take Care To Remove All The Vices. If You Remove Part, You May Render The Matter Worse. By Banishing Vicious Luxury, Without Curing Sloth And An Indifference To Others, You Only Diminish Industry In The State, And Add Nothing To Men's Charity Or Their Generosity.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Freedom Of Choice

What Is Easy And Obvious Is Never Valued; And Even What Is In Itself Difficult, If We Come To Knowledge Of It Without Difficulty, And Without And Stretch Of Thought Or Judgment, Is But Little Regarded.

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

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.

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