Author of quotes: David Hume. Page 1

We cannot think of anything that we have not previously perceived with the help of external senses or internal senses.

There is no doubt that not only the most ignorant and stupid peasants, but also children and even animals improve through experience and study the qualities of objects of nature, observing the actions that follow from them. If a child has experienced a sensation of pain, touching the flame of a candle, then he will try not to bring his hands close to any candle and expect a similar action from a reason similar to the above in sensory qualities and appearance. Therefore, if you claim that the child's mind arrives at this conclusion through some process of reasoning or formal reasoning, then I have every right to demand that you indicate this reasoning, and you have no reason to refuse to fulfill such a just requirement. You have no right to say that this argumentation is vague and, perhaps, defies your investigation, as long as you admit that it is accessible to the understanding of the child. Therefore, if you have even a moment's hesitation, or if you, on reflection, offer some complex or deep argumentation, then you will in some way reject this solution of the issue and confess that it is not reasoning that prompts us to assume a similarity between the past and the future and expect similar actions. from reasons that are similar in appearance. This is the point I have tried to prove in this chapter; and if I am right, I still do not pretend that I have made some great discovery; if the truth is not on my side, I must admit that I am a very poor student, since even now I am not in a position to discover the argument which, apparently, was well known to me when I was still lying in the cradle.

I have to admit that it is unforgivably overconfident that person who concludes that an argument does not exist just because he eluded him in the course of his personal research. I must also admit that even if several generations of scholars have made useless efforts to investigate a subject, it might still be too hasty to conclude unconditionally that this subject is beyond human comprehension. Even though we have considered all the sources of our knowledge and concluded that they are unsuitable for such a subject, we may still have a suspicion that either the listing was incomplete or our research is inaccurate.

If I ask why you believe in a certain fact about which you are telling, then you must give me some reason, and this reason will be some other fact related to the first. But since you cannot continue to act in this way in infinitum, you must eventually come to some fact in your memory or feelings; otherwise, you have to accept that your faith is completely groundless.

The story of Tiberius or Nero makes us fear that our monarchs would not be just as tyrants if they were freed from the laws and parliament that restricted them; however, observations of fraud or atrocities in private life in connection with some reflection are sufficient to instill in us the same apprehension, for these observations serve as an example to the general corruption of human nature and point to the danger to which we are exposed, unconditionally trusting people.

Nature will always defend its rights and in the end will prevail over any abstract reasoning.

As an active being, I am quite satisfied with this decision, but as a philosopher with a certain amount of curiosity, if not skepticism, I want to know the basis of the mentioned conclusion.

It would be useless to punish a man for folly, or to convince him that he was wise and perceptive, though the same punishments and beliefs can have a significant impact when it comes to justice and injustice.

Friendship is a calm and quiet affection, guided, and strengthened by habit, arising from long Association and mutual obligations.

We condemn any deception, any breach of the word, because we believe that freedom and breadth of communication between people are completely dependent on the faithfulness of the promises.

The affects of love and hate is always accompanied with benevolence and anger.

Genuine, sincere pride or self-respect unless it is well hidden and at the same time is really justified, should be definitive characteristic of a man of honor...

No one knows how to discern in himself the virtue and Vice, or to be sure that his assessment of self-esteem is justified.

Nothing can be more laudable, than a consciousness of dignity in cases when we do have valuable qualities.