David Hume
David Hume
David Hume– 25 August 1776) or David Homewas a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, who is best known today for his highly influential system of radical philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth7 May 1711
order atheism unexpected
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.
beauty mind quality
Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.
lazy lively stills
The most lively thought is still inferior to the dullest sensation.
ends attainment humans
The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness
white swans black
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.
philosophical world labor
Everything in the world is purchased by labor.
war loss 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.
moving facts doe
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.
nature mean men
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.
philosophy passion office
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.
learning way path
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.
stupid philosophical design
A purpose, an intention, a design, strikes everywhere even the careless, the most stupid thinker.
beauty philosophical moral
Beauty, whether moral or natural, is felt, more properly than perceived.
liberty kind lost
Liberty of any kind is never lost all at once.