David Hume Quotes

For some strange reason, we believe that anyone who lived before we were born was in some peculiar way a different kind of human being from any we have come in contact with in our own lifetime. This concept must be changed; we must realize in our bones that almost everything in time and history has changed except the human being.

Innately, there are qualities in human beings that are always repetitive. There are things like love and hate and jealousy that are just going to be there forever.

The true science and study of man is man.

Human Nature is the only science of man; and yet has been hitherto the most neglected.

I think those who object to my characterizing man as simple want somehow to retain a deep mystery at his core.

Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort.

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

Introspection and preserved writings give us far more insight into the ways of past humans than we have into the ways of past dinosaurs. For that reason, I'm optimistic that we can eventually arrive at convincing explanations for these broadest patterns of human history.

There is a great deal of human nature in man.

What makes Shakespeare eternal is his grasp of psychology. He knew how to nail stuff about us as human beings.

If we compare the present time with former ages, we find that the same tendencies and desires have at all times governed states and peoples.

We can't solve any problem without first solving the problem of human nature

Two things in America are astonishing: the changeableness of most human behavior and the strange stability of certain principles. Men are constantly on the move, but the spirit of humanity seems almost unmoved.

The events of future history ... will be of the same nature—–or nearly so—–as the history of the past, so long as men are men.

One of my pleasures is observing people's behavior and pointing out the inconsistencies that we all sort of have at the center of our lives.

History is never antiquated, because humanity is always fundamentally the same.

I don't like human nature, but I do like human beings.

We learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men's behaviour.

The history of the world shows that when a mean thing was done, man did it; when a good thing was done, man did it.

The perpetual stream of human nature is formed into ever-changing shallows, eddies, falls and pools by the land over which it passes. Perhaps the only real value of history lies in considering this endlessly varied play between the essence and the accidents.

History teaches us virtue, but nature never ceases to teachh us vice.

I will confess that I have no more sense of what goes on in the mind of mankind than I have for the mind of an ant.

Man is about the same, in the main, whether with despotism, or whether with freedom.

I think it was a big revelation to me earlier in my life that people who appear to be evil are actually not. In other words, nobody wakes up in the morning and says, "Yuck, yuck, yuck, I'm gonna be evil." I think even like Saddam Hussein or Hitler would wake up and say, "I think it's going to be a good day. I'm gonna do some really important work." And given their definition of good, they went out and did horrible things.

People do what they are told not to do. It happens time and time again. Here on the frozen tundra, it is known as the Tongue on the Frozen Pump Handle principle.