Quotes from David Hume

The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness

The advantages found in history seem to be of three kinds, as it amuses the fancy, as it improves the understanding, and as it strengthens virtue.

A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow real poverty.

It is a certain rule that wit and passion are entirely incompatible. When the affections are moved, there is no place for the imagination.

The law always limits every power it gives.

Habit may lead us to belief and expectation but not to the knowledge, and still less to the understanding, of lawful relations.

It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless appetite for applause

A little philosophy makes a man an Atheist: a great deal converts him to religion

Superstition is an enemy to civil liberty.

No human testimony can have such force as to prove a miracle, and make it a just foundation for any such system of religion

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.

Scholastic learning and polemical divinity retarded the growth of all true knowledge.

The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.

Be a philosopher but, amid all your philosophy be still a man.

All knowledge degenerates into probability.

Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.

Human Nature is the only science of man; and yet has been hitherto the most neglected.

Tho' there be no such Thing as Chance in the World; our Ignorance of the real Ccause of any Event has the same Influence on the Understanding, and begets a like Species of Belief or Opinion.

Mohammed praises [instances of] tretchery, inhumanity, cruelty, revenge, and bigotry that are utterly incompatible with civilized society.

It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom.

Custom is the great guide to human life.

The sweetest path of life leads through the avenues of learning, and whoever can open up the way for another, ought, so far, to be esteemed a benefactor to mankind.

Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.

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.