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Never literary attempt was more unfortunate than my Treatise of Human Nature. It fell dead-born from the press.

David Hume

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David Hume
Age: 65 †
Born: 1711
Born: April 26
Died: 1776
Died: August 25
Economist
Essayist
Historian
Librarian
Philosopher
Writer
Edinburgh
Scotland
David Home
Hume
Nature
Unfortunate
Human
Literary
Humans
Fell
Never
Attempt
Presses
Press
Dead
Born
Treatise

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What would become of history, had we not a dependence on the veracity of the historian, according to the experience, what we have had of mankind?
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The religious hypothesis, therefore, must be considered only as a particular method of accounting for the visible phenomena of the universe: but no just reasoner will ever presume to infer from it any single fact, and alter or add to the phenomena, in any single particular.
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A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.
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Art may make a suite of clothes, but nature must produce a man.
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Habit may lead us to belief and expectation but not to the knowledge, and still less to the understanding, of lawful relations.
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It is... a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.
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All power, even the most despotic, rests ultimately on opinion.
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The whole of natural theologyresolves itself into one simple, though somewhat ambiguous proposition, That the cause or causesof order in the universe probably bear some remote analogy to human intelligence.
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It is still open for me, as well as you, to regulate my behavior, by my experience of past events.
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When the coherence of the parts of a stone, or even that composition of parts which renders it extended when these familiar objects, I say, are so inexplicable, and contain circumstances so repugnant and contradictory with what assurance can we decide concerning the origin of worlds, or trace their history from eternity to eternity?
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It forms a strong presumption against all supernatural and miraculous relations, that they are observed chiefly to abound among ignorant and barbarous nations or if a civilized people has ever given admission to any of them, that people will be found to have received them from ignorant and barbarous ancestors.
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Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason of itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore, are not conclusions of our reason.
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Fine writing, according to Mr. Addison, consists of sentiments which are natural without being obvious.
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God is an ever-present spirit guiding all that happens to a wise and holy end.
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That the sun shines tomorrow is a judgement that is as true as the contrary judgement.
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Liberty of any kind is never lost all at once.
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In all the events of life, we ought still to preserve our scepticism. If we believe that fire warms, or water refreshes, it is only because it costs us too much pains to think otherwise.
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Nothing endears so much a friend as sorrow for his death. The pleasure of his company has not so powerful an influence.
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The gazing populace receive greedily, without examination, whatever soothes superstition and promotes wonder.
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The supposition that the future resembles the past, is not founded on arguments of any kind, but is derived entirely from habit.
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