David Hume Quotes

The man of science is a poor philosopher.

Logic works, metaphysics contemplates.

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.

Anything that gives us new knowledge gives us an opportunity to be more rational.

The very essence of rationalism is that it assumes that the reason is the highest faculty in man and the lord of all the rest.

A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.

When we examine the opinions of men, we find that nothing is more uncommon than common sense; or, in other words, they lack judgment to discover plain truths or to reject absurdities and palpable contradictions.

Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.

What is your aim in philosophy? To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle.

... common sense is very rare.

Science must begin with myths and with the criticism of myth.

The more people are exposed to science, the more we will move away from superstition.

Philosophy is explicitness, generality, orientation and assessment. That which one would insinuate, thereof one must speak.

Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity. ...Without philosophy thoughts are, as it were, cloudy and indistinct: its task is to make them clear and to give them sharp boundaries.

The beauty of science hugely outranks the charms of superstition.

Science can give us knowledge, but it cannot give us wisdom. Nor can religion, until it puts aside nonsense and distraction and becomes itself again.

Talk about rationality can get very confusing unless the things with which rationality deals are also included.

Science when well-digested is nothing but good sense and reason.

We do not respect people's beliefs, we evaluate their reasons. If my reasons are good enough for believing what I believe, you will helplessly believe what I believe. I will give you my reasons and reasons are contagious. That is what it is to be a rational human being.

This is one of the great social functions of science - to free people from superstition

Many scientists think that philosophy has no place, so for me it's a sad time because the role of reflection, contemplation, meditation, self inquiry, insight, intuition, imagination, creativity, free will, is in a way not given any importance, which is the domain of philosophers.

All truth, in the long run, is only common sense clarified.

Philosophy has to be enquiring; it can take nothing on faith, and its methods are based not on the blind acceptance of authority, but on establishing truths by reason and argument.

I am not an adolescent, nor a romantic. I analyze objectively.

I possess a strong sense of reason.