David Hume (1711–76) was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian. He rejected the possibility of certainty in knowledge and claimed that all the data of reason stem from experience by the senses.
Born in Edinburgh, Hume was fascinated by literature and philosophy at a young age. He became obsessed with the idea of truth; it caused him to lose his faith when he was 18 years old. After finishing his studies, he moved to France for private studies, and wrote his Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40,) in which he argued that reasoning was merely the habit of the mind as it attempted to make sense of random events, and that reason would never be adequate to arrive at the ultimate cause of anything. He argued that it was impossible to go beyond the subjective experiences of impressions and ideas. He also wrote An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748,) An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751,) and Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary (1752.)
In 1755, the Church of England tried to prosecute Hume for his religious skepticism, but the case was dismissed. Hume thus became one of the first to openly question the existence of God without almost no consequences.
Hume’s philosophical writings went overlooked during his lifetime, and the considerable fame he achieved derived from his work as an essayist and a historian. While working as a librarian, Hume wrote the six-volume History of England (1762,) which became a best-seller for more than a century and gave him the financial independence to write and revise his many philosophical treatises.
Hume became the leading figure of a group of Scottish intellectuals, including the economist Adam Smith (who invented the study of economics,) Adam Ferguson (who helped invent sociology,) James Hutton (who invented geology,) Joseph Black and William Cullen (who invented modern chemistry,) James Watt (who developed the steam engine,) James Boswell (who wrote the biography of Samuel Johnson,) Walter Scott (who wrote the first great novel,) and Hugh Blair (the first University professor to teach a course in English literature.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by David Hume
And what is the greatest number? Number one.
—David Hume
Topics: Competition
Trivial circumstances, which show the manners of the age, are often more instructive as well as entertaining, than the great transactions of wars and negotiations, which are nearly similar in all periods, and in all countries of the world.
—David Hume
Nothing can be more unphilosophical than to be positive or dogmatical on any subject.—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 alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities.
—David Hume
Topics: Pride, Certainty
What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call ‘thought’.
—David Hume
Topics: Thought
Such 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 who excel the most in the common and vulgar professions.
—David Hume
Topics: Literature
Doctor, as I believe you would not choose to tell any thing but the truth, you had better tell him, that I am dying as fast as my enemies, if I have any, could wish, and as easily and cheerfully as my best friends could desire.
—David Hume
Topics: Death
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.
—David Hume
Topics: Happiness
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.
—David Hume
Topics: Genius
It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.
—David Hume
Topics: Liberty
Almost everyone has a predominant inclination, to which his other desires and actions submit, and which governs him, though perhaps with some intervals, through the whole course of his life.
—David Hume
It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom.
—David Hume
Topics: Life and Living
Art may make a suite of clothes, but nature must produce a man.
—David Hume
Topics: Nature
The figure which a man makes in life, the reception which he meets with in company, the esteem paid him by his acquaintance—all these depend as much upon his good sense and judgment, as upon any other part, of his character. A man of the best intentions, and farthest removed from all injustice and violence, would never be able to make himself much regarded, without a moderate share of parts and understanding.
—David Hume
Topics: Common Sense
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.
—David Hume
Topics: Eloquence, Conversation
Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.
—David Hume
Topics: Religion
Beauty is no quality in things themselves: it exists merely in the mind which contemplates them.
—David Hume
Topics: Thinking, Thoughts, Thought, Beauty
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.
—David Hume
Topics: Happiness
There is a sort 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 truth, these people mistake the means of pleasing, and incur universal blame.
—David Hume
Topics: Exaggeration
The greatest parts, without discretion, may be fatal to their owner.—Polyphemus, deprived of his eye, was only the more exposed on account of his enormous strength and stature.
—David Hume
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.
—David Hume
Topics: History
Disbelief in futurity loosens in a great measure the ties of morality, and may be for that reason pernicious to the peace of civil society.
—David Hume
Topics: Beliefs
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.
—David Hume
Topics: Conversation, Manners
All advantages are attended with disadvantages.—A universal compensation prevails in all conditions of being and existence.
—David Hume
What praise is implied in the simple epithet useful! What reproach in the contrary.
—David Hume
Topics: Usefullness
Delicacy of taste is favorable to love and friendship, by confining our choice to few people, and making us indifferent to the company and conversation of the greater part of men.
—David Hume
Topics: Taste
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.
—David Hume
Topics: Superstition
So great is the force of laws, and of particular forms of government, and so little dependence have they on the humors and tempers of men, that consequences almost as general and certain may sometimes be deduced from them, as any which the mathematical sciences afford us.
—David Hume
Topics: Law
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.
—David Hume
Topics: Comedy
It is certain that a serious attention to the sciences and liberal arts softens and humanizes the temper, and cherishes those fine emotions in which true virtue and honor consist. It very rarely happens that a man of taste and learning is not, at least, an honest man, whatever frailties may attend him.
—David Hume
Topics: Science
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; as gold, though less serviceable than iron, acquires from its scarcity a value which is much superior.
—David Hume
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