David Hume Quotes

Happy contractedness of youth, nay, of mankind in general, that they think neither of the high nor the deep, of the true nor the false, but only of what is suited to their own conceptions.

Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there.

Versatility of education can be found in our best poetry, but the depth of mankind should be found in the philosopher.

The proper study of Mankind is Man.

As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before.

Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe.

The proper study of mankind is books.

The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.

Only the shallow know themselves.

The esthete stands in the same relation to beauty as the pornographer stands to love, and the politician stands to life.

If all things were equally in all men, nothing would be prized.

I'm a really easy guy to read.

For the most part, we, who could choose simplicity, choose complication.

Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind that it never had many professors.

I'm just a man, no more or no less. Bad as the worst, good as the best.

Man, when he is merely what he seems to be, is almost nothing.

If, presume not to God to scan; The proper study of Mankind is Man. Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state, a being darkly wise, and rudely great.

In human character, simplicity doesn't exist except among simpletons.

Science offers us an explanation of how complexity (the difficult) arose out of simplicity (the easy). The hypothesis of God offers no worthwhile explanation for anything, for it simply postulates what we are trying to explain. It postulates the difficult to explain, and leaves it at that.

It's easy to create something that has a lot of luster, but it's very hard to make something that has a lot of depth.

"Body am I, and soul" - so saith the child. And why should one not speak like children?

It's not a certain society that seems ridiculous to me, it's mankind.

Mankind is a science that defies definitions.

Of the opinions of philosophy I most gladly embrace those that are most solid, that is to say, most human and most our own; my opinions, in conformity with my conduct, are low and humble.

Television is to news as bumperstickers are to philosophy.