David Hume
Scottish philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment (1711 to 1776), born in Edinburgh; author of A Treatise of Human Nature, the Enquiries, and a History of England.
David Hume did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Our reading
All our ideas, the fainter perceptions, are copies of our impressions, the more lively ones
Their wordsOr, to express myself in philosophical language, all our ideas or more feeble perceptions are copies of our impressions or more lively ones.
↗An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748; 1777 edition, ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge)gutenberg.org 1st of 7 in this piece
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Their wordsI shall venture to affirm, as a general proposition, which admits of no exception, that the knowledge of this relation is not, in any instance, attained by reasonings a priori; but arises entirely from experience, when we find that any particular objects are constantly conjoined with each other.
↗An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748; 1777 edition, ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge)gutenberg.org 2nd of 7 in this piece
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Their wordsCustom, 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.
↗An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748; 1777 edition, ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge)gutenberg.org 3rd of 7 in this piece
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Their wordsA wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.
↗An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748; 1777 edition, ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge)gutenberg.org 4th of 7 in this piece
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Their wordsA 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.
↗An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748; 1777 edition, ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge)gutenberg.org 5th of 7 in this piece
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Their wordsThe plain consequence is (and it is a general maxim worthy of our attention), 'That 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 endeavours to establish; and even in that case there is a mutual destruction of arguments, and the superior only gives us an assurance suitable to that degree of force, which remains, after deducting the inferior.'
↗An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748; 1777 edition, ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge)gutenberg.org 6th of 7 in this piece
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Their wordsIf 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.
↗An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748; 1777 edition, ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge)gutenberg.org 7th of 7 in this piece
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Dashed means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.