David Hume Quotes

Nothing fortifies scepticism more than the fact that there are some who are not sceptics; if all were so, they would be wrong.

We cannot infer that because sciences of things divine and human are full of controversies and quarrels, therefore their whole subject-matter is uncertain ; for there have been many persons so enamoured of contradiction, as to turn into ridicule geometrical axioms.

The reflection of nature in man's thought must be understood not lifelessly but in the eternal process of movement, the arising of contradictions and their solution.

Credo quia absurdum – I believe because it is absurd.

Sceptics are yet the most credulous.

Questioning is the piety of thought.

Experience has repeatedly confirmed that well-known maxim of Bacon's that 'a little philosophy inclineth a man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.' At the same time, when Bacon penned that sage epigram... he forgot to add that the God to whom depth in philosophy brings back men's minds is far from being the same from whom a little philosophy estranges them.

Here's something that intrigues me: If you have faith, you believe regardless of the evidence, yet if there's ever evidence to support faith, everyone goes to it and points to it.

Being a victim is more palatable than having to recognize the intrinsic contradictions of one's own governing philosophy.

Within the perfect situation, not everything is perfect.

Philosophy begins when one learns to doubt -- particularly to doubt one's cherished beliefs, one's dogmas and one's axioms.

I can only regard with bewilderment an educated man who is also religious

To philosophize is to doubt.

You may be wrong, but you may be right.

I'm still an atheist, thank God.

There is but one thing that can free a man from superstition, and that is belief. All history proves it. The most sceptical have ever been the most credulous.

Prayer, to the thinking person, is almost inescapable.

Say, Not so, and you will out circle the philosophers.

Thank God, I am still an atheist.

All we have to believe with is our senses, the tools we use to perceive the world: our sight, our touch, our memory. If they lie to us, then nothing can be trusted. And even if we do not believe, then still we cannot travel in any other way than the road our senses show us; and we must walk that road to the end.

What of Art? -It is a malady. --Love? -An Illusion. --Religion? -The fashionable substitute for Belief. --You are a sceptic. -Never! Scepticism is the beginning of Faith. --What are you? -To define is to limit.

All our knowledge originates in opinion.

Scepticismcan never be thoroughly applied, else life would come to a standstill.