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Such a superiority do the pursuits of literature possess above every other occupation, that even he who attains but a mediocrity in them, merits the pre-eminence above those that excel the most in the common and vulgar professions.

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
Possess
Professions
Merit
Pursuits
Pursuit
Excel
Profession
Merits
Literature
Vulgar
Common
Superiority
Even
Mediocrity
Attains
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Eminence

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Liberty of thinking, and of expressing our thoughts, is always fatal to priestly power, and to those pious frauds on which it is commonly founded.
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The greater part of mankind may be divided into two classes that of shallow thinkers who fall short of the truth and that of abstruse thinkers who go beyond it.
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Nothing is so improving to the temper as the study of the beauties either of poetry, eloquence, music, or painting.
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Avarice, the spur of industry.
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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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It affords a violent prejudice against almost every science, that no prudent man, however sure of his principles, dares prophesy concerning any event, or foretell the remote consequences of things.
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Among the arts of conversation no one pleases more than mutual deference or civility, which leads us to resign our own inclinations to those of our companions, and to curb and conceal that presumption and arrogance so natural to the human mind.
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There is no such thing as freedom of choice unless there is freedom to refuse.
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What praise is implied in the simple epithet useful! What reproach in the contrary.
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The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one.
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A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.
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Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous those in philosophy only ridiculous.
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To have recourse to the veracity of the supreme Being, in order to prove the veracity of our senses, is surely making a very unexpected circuit.
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The mention of one apartment in a building naturally introduces an enquiry or discourse concerning the others: and if we think ofa wound, we can scarcely forbear reflecting on the pain which follows it.
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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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It is... a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.
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The most lively thought is still inferior to the dullest sensation.
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.. that a rule, which, in speculation, may seem the most advantageous to society, may yet be found, in practice, totally pernicious and destructive.
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From causes which appear similar, we expect similar effects. This is the sum total of all our experimental conclusions.
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The great subverter of Pyrrhonism or the excessive principles of scepticism is action, and employment, and the occupations of common life.
David Hume