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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.
-David Hume
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To Have Recourse To

David Hume
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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.

Understanding the Quote: "to have recourse to the veracity of the supreme being, in order..."

This quote by David Hume reflects deeply on the theme of order. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Order, Atheism, Unexpected, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how David Hume interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About David Hume

David Hume is celebrated for insightful thoughts on order and atheism. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Order
Atheism
Unexpected
More From David Hume
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.
Determination
Ideas
Mind
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.
Religious
Strong
Miracle
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.
Doubt
Religion
Mystery
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.
Religious
Moon
Support
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.
Truth
Ignorance
Numbers
It Is Seldom, That Liberty Of Any Kind Is Lost All At Once. Slavery Has So Frightful An Aspect To Men Accustomed To Freedom, That It Must Steal Upon Them By Degrees, And Must Disguise Itself In A Thousand Shapes, In Order To Be Received.
Men
Order
Liberty
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.
Religious
Believe
Exercise
[a Person’s] Utmost Art And Industry Can Never Equal The Meanest Of Nature's Productions, Either For Beauty Or Value.
Art
Nature
Mortification
I Cannot But Bless The Memory Of Julius Caesar, For The Great Esteem He Expressed For Fat Men And His Aversion To Lean Ones.
Memories
Men
Aversion
... 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.
Two
Words Of Wisdom
Mind
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.
Philosophy
Weakness
Elude
I Am Ready To Reject All Belief And Reasoning, And Can Look Upon No Opinion Even As More Probable Or Likely Than Another.
Looks
Belief
Opinion
A Purpose, An Intention, A Design, Strikes Everywhere Even The Careless, The Most Stupid Thinker.
Stupid
Philosophical
Design
Luxury Is A Word Of Uncertain Signification, And May Be Taken In A Good As In A Bad Sense
Taken
Luxury
May
Accuracy Is, In Every Case, Advantageous To Beauty, And Just Reasoning To Delicate Sentiment. In Vain Would We Exalt The One By Depreciating The Other.
Sentimental
Vain
Cases
Human Happiness Seems To Consist In Three Ingredients: Action, Pleasure And Indolence.
Happiness
Feelings
Three
Nothing Indeed Can Be A Stronger Presumption Of Falsehood Than The Approbation Of The Multitude.
Truth
Honesty
Stronger
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.
Science
Past
Imagination
Avarice, The Spur Of Industry.
Spurs
Industry
Avarice
It Is Not Contrary To Reason To Prefer The Destruction Of The Whole World To The Scratching Of My Finger. It Is Not Contrary To Reason For Me To Choose My Total Ruin, To Prevent The Least Uneasiness Of An Indian, Or Person Wholly Unknown To Me. It Is As Little Contrary To Reason To Prefer Even My Own Acknowledged Lesser Good To My Greater, And Have A More Ardent Affection For The Former Than The Latter.
World
Littles
Ruins
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.
Stupid
Order
Numbers
It Affords A Violent Prejudice Against Almost Every Science, That No Prudent Man, However Sure Of His Principles, Dares Prophesy Concerning Any Event, Or Foretell The Remote Consequences Of Things.
Men
Principles
Events
It Must Appear Impossible, That Theism Could, From Reasoning, Have Been The Primary Religion Of Human Race, And Have Afterwards, By Its Corruption, Given Birth To Polytheism And To All The Various Superstitions Of The Heathen World. Reason, When Obvious, Prevents These Corruptions: When Abstruse, It Keeps The Principles Entirely From The Knowledge Of The Vulgar, Who Are Alone Liable To Corrupt Any Principle Or Opinion.
Race
Principles
World
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.
Philosophy
Reflection
Common Sense
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.
Military
Government
Opinion
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.
Nature
Mean
Animal
It Is With Books As With Women, Where A Certain Plainness Of Manner And Of Dress Is More Engaging Than That Glare Of Paint And Airs And Apparel Which May Dazzle The Eye, But Reaches Not The Affections.
Book
Eye
Air
Nothing Endears So Much A Friend As Sorrow For His Death. The Pleasure Of His Company Has Not So Powerful An Influence.
Powerful
Sorrow
Influence
Superstition Is An Enemy To Civil Liberty.
Enemy
Religion
Atheism
It Is Still Open For Me, As Well As You, To Regulate My Behavior, By My Experience Of Past Events.
Past
Events
Ethics
It Seems Certain, That Though A Man, In A Flush Of Humour, After Intense Reflection On The Many Contradictions And Imperfections Of Human Reason, May Entirely Renounce All Belief And Opinion, It Is Impossible For Him To Persevere In This Total Scepticism, Or Make It Appear In His Conduct For A Few Hours.
Men
Reflection
Imperfection
No Truth Appears To Me More Evident Than That Beasts Are Endowed With Thought And Reason As Well As Men.
Men
Beast
Reason
Generally Speaking, The Errors In Religion Are Dangerous; Those In Philosophy Only Ridiculous.
Philosophy
Philosophical
Science
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.
Christian
Enemy
Subjects
Delicacy Of Taste Has The Same Effect As Delicacy Of Passion; It Enlarges The Sphere Both Of Our Happiness And Our Misery.
Passion
Delicacy
Taste
Men Often Act Knowingly Against Their Interest.
Philosophical
Men
Interest
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.
Pain
Light
Self
These Arguments On Each Side (and Many More Might Be Produced) Are So Plausible, That I Am Apt To Suspect, They May, The One As Well As The Other, Be Solid And Satisfactory, And That Reason And Sentiment Concur In Almost All Moral Determinations And Conclusions.
Determination
May
Might
The Unhappy Of All Men Is He Who Believes Himself To Be So.
Believe
Men
Unhappy
The Great End Of All Human Industry Is The Attainment Of Happiness
Ends
Attainment
Humans
Riches Are Valuable At All Times, And To All Men, Because They Always Purchase Pleasures Such As Men Are Accustomed To And Desire; Nor Can Anything Restrain Or Regulate The Love Of Money But A Sense Of Honor And Virtue, Which, If It Be Not Nearly Equal At All Times, Will Naturally Abound Most In Ages Of Knowledge And Refinement.
Men
Honor
Age
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.
Knowledge
Science
Numbers
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
Believe
Passion
Deities
Habit May Lead Us To Belief And Expectation But Not To The Knowledge, And Still Less To The Understanding, Of Lawful Relations.
Expectations
Understanding
May
A Pleasant Comedy, Which Paints The Manners Of The Age, And Exposes A Faithful Picture Of Nature, Is A Durable Work, And Is Transmitted To The Latest Posterity. But A System, Whether Physical Or Metaphysical, Commonly Owes Its Success To Its Novelty; And Is No Sooner Canvassed With Impartiality Than Its Weakness Is Discovered.
Faithful
Age
Weakness
Justice Is A Moral Virtue, Merely Because It Has That Tendency To The Good Of Mankind, And Indeed Is Nothing But An Artificial Invention To That Purpose. The Same May Be Said Of Allegiance, Of The Laws Of Nations, Of Modesty, And Of Good Manners. All These Are Mere Human Contrivances For The Interest Of Society.
Law
Justice
Good Man
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.
Common Sense
Novelty
Admiration
Do You Come To A Philosopher As To A Cunning Man, To Learn Something By Magic Or Witchcraft, Beyond What Can Be Known By Common Prudence And Discretion?
Philosophical
Men
Magic
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.
Philosophy
Simplicity
Words Of Wisdom
Everything In The World Is Purchased By Labor.
Philosophical
World
Labor
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.
Love
Kindness
Passion
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.
Art
Philosophy
Political
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.
Religious
Reality
Miracle
..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.
Memories
Past
Words Of Wisdom
Moving From An Objective Statement Of Fact To A Subjective Statement Of Value Does Not Work, Because It Leaves Open Questions That Have Not Been Answered.
Moving
Doe
Facts
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.
Eye
Light
Mind
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.
Men
Liberty
Ambitious
Anything That Is Conceivable Is Possible.
Destiny
Of The World And Drudgery Of Business , Seeks A Pretense Of Reason To Give Itself A Full And Uncontrolled Indulgence.
Giving
World
Reason
The Great Subverter Of Pyrrhonism Or The Excessive Principles Of Scepticism Is Action, And Employment, And The Occupations Of Common Life.
Principles
Employment
Occupation
And Indeed Nothing But The Most Determined Scepticism, Along With A Great Degree Of Indolence, Can Justify This Aversion To Metaphysics. For If Truth Be At All Within The Reach Of Human Capacity, It Is Certain It Must Lie Very Deep And Abstruse: And To Hope We Shall Arrive At It Without Pains, While The Greatest Geniuses Have Failed With The Utmost Pains, Must Certainly Be Esteemed Sufficiently Vain And Presumptuous. I Pretend To No Such Advantage In The Philosophy I Am Going To Unfold, And Would Esteem It A Strong Presumption Against It, Were It So Very Easy And Obvious.
Strong
Pain
Philosophy
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.
Philosophy
Air
Giving
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.
Race
Civilization
Action
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.
Strong
Spring
Rivers
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.
Life
Learning
Way
In Ancient Times, Bodily Strength And Dexterity, Being Of Greater Use And Importance In War, Was Also Much More Esteemed And Valued, Than At Present. ... In Short, The Different Ranks Of Men Are, In A Great Measure, Regulated By Riches.
War
Men
Political
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.
Passion
Men
Being Positive
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.
Secret
Experience
Together
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.
Nature
Children
Science
I Never Asserted Such An Absurd Thing As That Things Arise Without A Cause.
God
Causes
Absurd
If God Is Omnipotent, Omniscient And Wholly Good, Whence Evil? If God Wills To Prevent Evil But Cannot, Then He Is Not Omnipotent. If He Can Prevent Evil But Does Not, Then He Is Not Good. In Either Case He Is Not God.
Evil
Religion
Doe
The Most Lively Thought Is Still Inferior To The Dullest Sensation.
Lazy
Lively
Stills
Great Pleasures Are Much Less Frequent Than Great Pains.
Pain
Pleasure
.. The Voice Of Nature And Experience Seems Plainly To Oppose The Selfish Theory.
Selfish
Voice
Ethics
From Causes Which Appear Similar, We Expect Similar Effects. This Is The Sum Total Of All Our Experimental Conclusions.
Causes
Conclusion
Effects
Fine Writing, According To Mr. Addison, Consists Of Sentiments Which Are Natural Without Being Obvious.
Writing
Natural
Fine
Rousseau Was Mad But Influential; Hume Was Sane But Had No Followers.
Mad
Followers
Influential
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.
Taken
Passion
Reality
Men Are Much Oftener Thrown On Their Knees By The Melancholy Than By The Agreeable Passions.
Passion
Men
Knees
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.
Running
Men
Order
Enthusiasm Produces The Most Cruel Disorders In Human Society; But Its Fury Is Like That Of Thunder And Tempest, Which Exhaust Themselves In A Little Time, And Leave The Air More Calm And Serene Than Before.
Air
Littles
Enthusiasm
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.
Reflection
Understanding
Desire
When Men Are Most Sure And Arrogant They Are Commonly Most Mistaken.
Men
Stupidity
Arrogance
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.
Desire
Affection
Submit
But I Would Still Reply, That The Knavery And Folly Of Men Are Such Common Phenomena, That I Should Rather Believe The Most Extraordinary Events To Arise From Their Concurrence, Than Admit Of So Signal A Violation Of The Laws Of Nature
Believe
Men
Law
Barbarity, Caprice; These Qualities, However Nominally Disguised, We May Universally Observe From The Ruling Character Of The Deity In All Regular Religions.
Religious
Character
Evil
[priests Are] The Pretenders To Power And Dominion, And To A Superior Sanctity Of Character, Distinct From Virtue And Good Morals.
Character
Religion
Atheism
If The Religious Spirit Be Ever Mentioned In Any Historical Narration, We Are Sure To Meet Afterwards With A Detail Of The Miseries Which Attend It. And No Period Of Time Can Be Happier Or More Prosperous, Than Those In Which It Is Never Regarded Or Heard Of.
Religious
Historical
Religion
It Is Harder To Avoid Censure Than To Gain Applause.
Gains
Applause
Harder
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.
Care
Form
Assurance
Belief Is Nothing But A More Vivid, Lively, Forcible, Firm, Steady Conception Of An Object, Than What The Imagination Alone Is Ever Able To Attain.
Vivid Imagination
Able
Belief
Art May Make A Suite Of Clothes, But Nature Must Produce A Man.
Art
Nature
Men
The Christian Religion Not Only Was At First Attended With Miracles, But Even At This Day Cannot Be Believed By Any Reasonable Person Without One.
Christian
Religious
Miracle
Poets Themselves, Tho' Liars By Profession, Always Endeavour To Give An Air Of Truth To Their Fictions.
Liars
Air
Giving
Of All Sciences There Is None Where First Appearances Are More Deceitful Than In Politics.
Politics
Firsts
Appearance
Curiosity, Or The Love Of Knowledge, Has A Very Limited Influence, And Requires Youth, Leisure Education, Genius And Example To Make It Govern Any Person
Curiosity
Example
Genius
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.
Truth
Passion
Ideas
When Suicide Is Out Of Fashion We Conclude That None But Madmen Destroy Themselves; And All The Efforts Of Courage Appear Chimerical To Dastardly Minds ... Nevertheless, How Many Instances Are There, Well Attested, Of Men, In Every Other Respect Perfectly Discreet, Who, Without Remorse, Rage, Or Despair, Have Quitted Life For No Other Reason Than Because It Was A Burden To Them, And Have Died With More Composure Than They Lived?
Suicide
Fashion
Men
A Cause Is An Object Precedent And Contiguous To Another, And So United With It That The Idea Of The One Determines The Mind To Form The Idea Of The Other, And The Impression Of The One To Form A More Lively Idea Of The Other.
Ideas
Mind
Causes
Nothing More Powerfully Excites Any Affection Than To Conceal Some Part Of Its Object, By Throwing It Into A Kind Of Shade, Whichat The Same Time That It Shows Enough To Prepossess Us In Favour Of The Object, Leaves Still Some Work For The Imagination.
Passion
Imagination
Shade
Virtue, Like Wholesome Food, Is Better Than Poisons, However Corrected.
Food
Poison
Virtue
A Propensity To Hope And Joy Is Real Riches; One To Fear And Sorrow Real Poverty.
Real
Joy
Sorrow
In All Ages Of The World, Priests Have Been Enemies Of Liberty.
Enemy
Age
Liberty
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.
Spring
Men
Luxury
All Knowledge Degenerates Into Probability.
Knowledge
Science
Degenerates
And What Is The Greatest Number? Number One.
Philosophical
Numbers
Competition
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.
Death
Afterlife
Being There
Where Ambition Can Cover Its Enterprises, Even To The Person Himself, Under The Appearance Of Principle, It Is The Most Incurable And Inflexible Of Passions
Passion
Ambition
Principles
While We Are Reasoning Concerning Life, Life Is Gone.
Life
Gone
Life Is
Beauty In Things Exists In The Mind Which Contemplates Them.
Positive
Beauty
Philosophical
Eloquence, When At Its Highest Pitch, Leaves Little Room For Reason Or Reflection; But Addressing Itself Entirely To The Fancy Or The Affections, Captivates The Willing Hearers, And Subdues Their Understanding. Happily, This Pitch It Seldom Attains. But What A Tully Or A Demosthenes Could Scarcely Effect Over A Roman Or Athenian Audience, Every Capuchin, Every Itinerant Or Stationary Teacher Can Perform Over The Generality Of Mankind, And In A Higher Degree, By Touching Such Gross And Vulgar Passions.
Teacher
Passion
Reflection
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.
Philosophical
Passion
Eye
Vanity Is So Closely Allied To Virtue, And To Love The Fame Of Laudable Actions Approaches So Near The Love Of Laudable Actions For Their Own Sake, That These Passions Are More Capable Of Mixture Than Any Other Kinds Of Affection; And It Is Almost Impossible To Have The Latter Without Some Degree Of The Former.
Passion
Vanity
Degrees
A Man Posing For A Painting.
Men
Empathy
Painting
Beauty Is No Quality In Things Themselves: It Exists Merely In The Mind Which Contemplates Them; And Each Mind Perceives A Different Beauty.
Beauty
Mind
Quality
Nothing Exists Without A Cause, The Original Cause Of This Universe We Call God.
Causes
Originals
Universe
[the Sceptic] Must Acknowledge, If He Will Acknowledge Any Thing, That All Human Life Must Perish, Were His Principles To Prevail.all Discourse, All Action Would Immediately Cease, And Men Remain In A Total Lethargy, Till The Necessities Of Nature, Unsatisfied, Put An End To Their Miserable Existence.
Men
Principles
Action
If ... The Past May Be No Rule For The Future, All Experience Becomes Useless And Can Give Rise To No Inferences Or Conclusions.
Future
Science
Past
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.
Military
Reflection
Sublime
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.
Distance
Order
Spheres
From The Apparent Usefulness Of The Social Virtues, It Has Readily Been Inferred By Sceptics, Both Ancient And Modern, That All Moral Distinctions Arise From Education, And Were, At First, Invented, And Afterwards Encouraged ... In Order To Render Men Tractable, And Subdue Their Natural Ferocity And Selfishness, Which Incapacitated Them For Society.
Men
Order
Selfishness
No Quality Of Human Nature Is More Remarkable, Both In Itself And In Its Consequences, Than That Propensity We Have To Sympathize With Others, And To Receive By Communication Their Inclinations And Sentiments, However Different From, Or Even Contrary To Our Own.
Communication
Quality
Different
.. That A Rule, Which, In Speculation, May Seem The Most Advantageous To Society, May Yet Be Found, In Practice, Totally Pernicious And Destructive.
Practice
May
Ethics
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.
Law
Miracle
Facts
...virtue Is Attended By More Peace Of Mind Than Vice, And Meets With A More Favourable Reception From The World. I Am Sensible, That, According To The Past Experience Of Mankind, Friendship Is The Chief Joy Of Human Life And Moderation The Only Source Of Tranquillity And Happiness.
Past
Joy
Mind
Kitsch Is: A Species Of Beauty, Which, As It Is Florid And Superficial, Pleases At First; But Soon Palls Upon The Taste, And Is Rejected With Disdain, At Least Rated At Much Lower Value.
Art
Kitsch
Taste
The Most Pernicious Of All Taxes Are The Arbitrary.
Arbitrary
Taxes
Pernicious
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.
Wisdom
Men
Law
We May Conclude, Therefore, That, In Order To Establish Laws For The Regulation Of Property, We Must Be Acquainted With The Nature And Situation Of Man; Must Reject Appearances, Which May Be False, Though Specious; And Must Search For Those Rules, Which Are, On The Whole, Most Useful And Beneficial.
Men
Order
Law
Absolute Monarchy,... Is The Easiest Death, The True Euthanasia Of The British Constitution.
Death
Constitution
Euthanasia
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.
Past
Experience
Principles
We May Well Ask, What Causes Induce Us To Believe In The Existence Of Body? But 'tis Vain To Ask. Whether There Be Body Or Not? That Is A Point Which We Must Take For Granted In All Our Reasonings.
Believe
Causes
Body
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.
Thinking
Self
Oysters
It Is Harder To Avoid Censure Than To Gain Applause; For This May Be Done By One Great Or Wise Action In An Age. But To Escape Censure A Man Must Pass His Whole Life Without Saying Or Doing One Ill Or Foolish Thing
Wise
Men
Age
He Is Happy Whom Circumstances Suit His Temper; But He Is More Excellent Who Suits His Temper To Any Circumstance.
Happiness
Suits
Excellent
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.
Jealousy
Passion
Violence
... 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.
Wise
Country
Religious
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.
Mean
Learning
College
The Corruption Of The Best Things Gives Rise To The Worst.
Philosophical
Giving
Corruption
All Power, Even The Most Despotic, Rests Ultimately On Opinion.
Opinion
It Is Not Reason Which Is The Guide Of Life, But Custom.
Life
Reason
Guides
Even After The Observation Of The Frequent Conjunction Of Objects, We Have No Reason To Draw Any Inference Concerning Any Object Beyond Those Of Which We Have Had Experience.
Experience
Reason
Inference
Battles, Revolutions, Pestilence, Famine, And Death, Are Never The Effect Of Those Natural Causes, Which We Experience. Prodigies,omens, Oracles, Judgments, Quite Obscure The Few Natural Events, That Are Intermingled With Them. But As The Former Grow Thinner Every Pagewe Soon Learn, That There Is Nothing Mysterious Or Supernatural In The Case, But That All Proceeds From The Usual Propensity Of Mankind Towards The Marvellous, And That, Though This Inclination May At Intervals Receive A Check From Sense And Learning, It Can Never Be Thoroughly Extirpated.
Battle
Oracles
May
Such Is The Nature Of Novelty That Where Anything Pleases It Becomes Doubly Agreeable If New; But If It Displeases, It Is Doubly Displeasing On That Very Account.
Novelty
Please
Accounts
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.
Ignorance
Understanding
Obscurity
In All Matters Of Opinion And Science ... The Difference Between Men Is ... Oftener Found To Lie In Generals Than In Particulars; And To Be Less In Reality Than In Appearance. An Explication Of The Terms Commonly Ends The Controversy, And The Disputants Are Surprised To Find That They Had Been Quarrelling, While At Bottom They Agreed In Their Judgement.
Lying
Science
Reality
A Wise Man Proportions His Belief To The Evidence.
Wise
Wisdom
Knowledge
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.
Supposing That
Order
Principles
Philosophy Would Render Us Entirely Pyrrhonian, Were Not Nature Too Strong For It.
Strong
Philosophy
Philosophical
The Simplest And Most Obvious Cause Which Can There Be Assigned For Any Phenomena, Is Probably The True One.
Words Of Wisdom
Causes
Obvious
For, Besides, That Many Persons Find Too Sensible An Interest In Perpetually Recalling Such Topics; Besides This, I Say, The Motive Of Blind Despair Can Never Reasonably Have Place In The Sciences; Since, However Unsuccessful Former Attempts May Have Proved, There Is Still Room To Hope, That The Industry, Good Fortune, Or Improved Sagacity Of Succeeding Generations May Reach Discoveries Unknown To Former Ages.
Discovery
Despair
Age
That The Sun Shines Tomorrow Is A Judgement That Is As True As The Contrary Judgement.
Shining
Judgement
Sun
Nothing Can Be More Real, Or Concern Us More, Than Our Own Sentiments Of Pleasure And Uneasiness; And If These Be Favourable To Virtue And Unfavourable To Vice, No More Can Be Requisite To The Regulation Of Our Conduct And Behavior.
Real
Philosophical
Vices
While Newton Seemed To Draw Off The Veil From Some Of The Mysteries Of Nature, He Showed At The Same Time The Imperfections Of The Mechanical Philosophy; And Thereby Restored Her Ultimate Secrets To That Obscurity, In Which They Ever Did And Ever Will Remain.
Nature
Philosophy
Science
Happy The Man Whom Indulgent Fortune Allows To Pay To Virtue What He Owes To Nature, And To Make A Generous Gift Of What Must Otherwise Be Ravished From Him By Cruel Necessity.
Men
Pay
Virtue
Character Is The Result Of A System Of Stereotyped Principals.
Philosophical
Character
Results
The Heights Of Popularity And Patriotism Are Still The Beaten Road To Power And Tyranny.
Peace
War
Philosophical
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.
Passion
Humility
Pride
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
Passion
Heart
Profound
Among Well Bred People A Mutual Deference Is Affected, Contempt For Others Is Disguised; Authority Concealed; Attention Given To Each In His Turn; And An Easy Stream Of Conversation Maintained Without Vehemence, Without Interruption, Without Eagerness For Victory, And Without Any Airs Of Superiority.
Air
People
Victory
It Is... A Just Political Maxim, That Every Man Must Be Supposed A Knave.
Men
Political
Politics
But To Proceed In This Reconciling Project With Regard To The Question Of Liberty And Necessity; The Most Contentious Question Of Metaphysics, The Most Contentious Science.
Liberty
Free Will
Projects
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.
Eye
Men
World
In Our Reasonings Concerning Matter Of Fact, There Are All Imaginable Degrees Of Assurance, From The Highest Certainty To The Lowest Species Of Moral Evidence. A Wise Man, Therefore, Proportions His Belief To The Evidence.
Wise
Men
Facts
The Difference Between A Man Who Is Led By Opinion Or Emotion And One Who Is Led By Reason. The Former, Whether He Will Or Not, Performs Things Of Which He Is Entirely Ignorant; The Latter Is Subordinate To No One, And Only Does Those Things Which He Knows To Be Of Primary Importance In His Life, And Which On That Account He Desires The Most; And Therefore I Call The Former A Slave, But The Latter Free.
Men
Differences
Words Of Wisdom
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.
Ignorance
Pride
Together
When I Think Of God, When I Think Of Him As Existent, And When I Believe Him To Be Existent, My Idea Of Him Neither Increases Nordiminishes. But As It Is Certain There Is A Great Difference Betwixt The Simple Conception Of The Existence Of An Object, And The Belief Of It, And As This Difference Lies Not In The Parts Or Composition Of The Idea Which We Conceive; It Follows, That It Must Lie In The Manner In Which We Conceive It.
God
Lying
Believe
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.
Knowledge
Science
Needs
Friendship Is A Calm And Sedate Affection, Conducted By Reason And Cemented By Habit; Springing From Long Acquaintance And Mutual Obligations, Without Jealousies Or Fears, And Without Those Feverish Fits Of Heat And Cold, Which Cause Such An Agreeable Torment In The Amorous Passion.
Friendship
Passion
Long
Reading And Sauntering And Lounging And Dosing, Which I Call Thinking, Is My Supreme Happiness.
Reading
Journey
Thinking
Let Us Become Thoroughly Sensible Of The Weakness, Blindness, And Narrow Limits Of Human Reason: Let Us Duly Consider Its Uncertainty And Endless Contrarieties, Even In Subjects Of Common Life And Practice.... When These Topics Are Displayed In Their Full Light, As They Are By Some Philosophers And Almost All Divines; Who Can Retain Such Confidence In This Frail Faculty Of Reason As To Pay Any Regard To Its Determinations In Points So Sublime, So Abstruse, So Remote From Common Life And Experience?
Determination
Practice
Light
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.
Strong
Color
Vices
[rousseau] Has Not Had The Precaution To Throw Any Veil Over His Sentiments; And As He Scorns To Dissemble His Contempt Of Established Opinions, He Could Not Wonder That All The Zealots Were In Arms Against Him.
Veils
Arms
Opinion
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.
Determination
Real
Men
When Any Opinion Leads Us Into Absurdities, 'tis Certainly False; But 'tis Not Certain An Opinion Is False, Because 'tis Of Dangerous Consequence.
Philosophical
Opinion
Certain
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.
Wise
Government
People
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.
Imagination
Heaven
Perception
If We Take In Our Hand Any Volume; Of Divinity Or School Metaphysics, For Instance; Let Us Ask, Does It Contain Any Abstract Reasoning Concerning Quantity Or Number? No. Does It Contain Any Experimental Reasoning Concerning Matter Of Fact And Existence? No. Commit It Then To The Flames: For It Can Contain Nothing But Sophistry And Illusion.
School
Math
Numbers
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?
World
Stones
Coherence
For As To The Dispersing Of Books, That Circumstance Does Perhaps As Much Harm As Good: Since Nonsense Flies With Greater Celerity, And Makes Greater Impression Than Reason; Though Indeed No Particular Species Of Nonsense Is So Durable. But The Several Forms Of Nonsense Never Cease Succeeding One Another; And Men Are Always Under The Dominion Of Some One Or Other, Though Nothing Was Ever Equal In Absurdity And Wickedness To Our Present Patriotism.
Book
Men
Wickedness
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.
Running
Blessing
Blood
There Is A Set Of Harmless Liars, Frequently To Be Met With In Company, Who Deal Much In The Marvellous. Their Usual Intention Is To Please And Entertain; But As Men Are Most Delighted With What They Conceive To Be The Truth, These People Mistake The Means Of Pleasing, And Incur Universal Blame.
Mistake
Liars
Mean
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.
Acceptance
Men
Yield
The First Ideas Of Religion Arose, Not From Contemplation Of The Works Of Nature, But From A Concern With Regard To The Events Of Life.
Ideas
Events
Firsts
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.
Government
Infinite
Reason
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.
Mediocrity
Literature
Occupation
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.
Spring
Intelligent
Secret
A Tory..., Since The Revolution, May Be Defined In A Few Words, To Be A Lover Of Monarchy, Though Without Abandoning Liberty; Anda Partizan Of The Family Of Stuart. As A Whig May Be Defined To Be A Lover Of Liberty Though Without Renouncing Monarchy; And A Friend To The Settlement In The Protestant Line.
Liberty
Revolution
Few Words
If The Contemplation, Even Of Inanimate Beauty, Is So Delightful; If It Ravishes The Senses, Even When The Fair Form Is Foreign Tous: What Must Be The Effects Of Moral Beauty? And What Influence Must It Have, When It Embellishes Our Own Mind, And Is The Result Of Our Own Reflection And Industry?
Beauty
Reflection
Mind
Manufacturers...gradually Shift Their Places, Leaving Those Countries And Provinces Which They Have Already Enriched, And Flying To Others, Whether They Are Allured By The Cheapness Of Provisions And Labour.
Country
Flying
Leaving
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.
Pain
Believe
Thinking
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.
Men
Office
May
In All Ages Of The World, Priests Have Been Enemies To Liberty; And It Is Certain, That This Steady Conduct Of Theirs Must Have Been Founded On Fixed Reasons Of Interest And Ambition. Liberty Of Thinking, And Of Expressing Our Thoughts, Is Always Fatal To Priestly Power, And To Those Pious Frauds, On Which It Is Commonly Founded; And, By An Infallible Connexion, Which Prevails Among All Kinds Of Liberty, This Privilege Can Never Be Enjoyed, At Least Has Never Yet Been Enjoyed, But In A Free Government.
Ambition
Thinking
Government
Luxury, Or A Refinement On The Pleasures And Conveniences Of Life, Had Long Been Supposed The Source Of Every Corruption In Government, And The Immediate Cause Of Faction, Sedition, Civil Wars, And The Total Loss Of Liberty. It Was, Therefore, Universally Regarded As A Vice, And Was An Object Of Declamation To All Satyrists, And Severe Moralists.
War
Loss
Luxury
The Religious Hypothesis, Therefore, Must Be Considered Only As A Particular Method Of Accounting For The Visible Phenomena Of The Universe: But No Just Reasoner Will Ever Presume To Infer From It Any Single Fact, And Alter Or Add To The Phenomena, In Any Single Particular.
Religious
Atheism
Add
Liberty Of Any Kind Is Never Lost All At Once.
Liberty
Kind
Lost
Your Corn Is Ripe Today; Mine Will Be So Tomorrow. 'tis Profitable For Us Both, That I Should Labour With You Today, And That You Should Aid Me Tomorrow.
Collaboration
Corn
Today
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.
Determination
Believe
Giving
Heaven And Hell Suppose Two Distinct Species Of Men, The Good And The Bad. But The Greatest Part Of Mankind Float Betwixt Vice And Virtue.
Men
Two
Heaven
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.
Men
Thinking
Fire
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