Hume

Famous quotes containing the word hume:

    We can conceive a thinking being to have either many or few perceptions. Suppose the mind to be reduced even below the life of an oyster. Suppose it to have only one perception, as of thirst or hunger. Consider it in that situation. Do you conceive any thing but merely that perception? Have you any notion of self or substance? If not, the addition of other perceptions can never give you that notion.
    —David Hume (1711–1776)

    Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.
    —David Hume (1711–1776)

    Luxury, or a refinement on the pleasures and conveniences of life, had long been supposed the source of every corruption in government, and the immediate cause of faction, sedition, civil wars, and the total loss of liberty. It was, therefore, universally regarded as a vice, and was an object of declamation to all satyrists, and severe moralists.
    —David Hume (1711–1776)