David Hume

"Most of the virtues of men are exaggerated and misrepresented"

"Dreams are but the faint shadows of our waking thoughts"

"Custom is the great guide of human life."

"Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them."

"The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster."

"When I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other."

"A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence."

"Generally speaking, the errors and follies of human nature are rather to be pitied than ridiculed."

"Ambition, avarice, self-love, vanity, friendship, generosity, public spirit—these passions, mixed in various degrees, and distributed through society, have been from the beginning of the world, and still are the source of all actions and enterprises."

"The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny."

"Superstition is the natural child of ignorance."

"The corruption of the best things produces the worst."

"There is not to be found, in all history, any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men, of such unquestionable good sense, education and learning, as to secure us against all delusion in themselves."

"Moral distinctions stem not from abstract reasoning about the world, but from feelings."

"An cultivated taste for the arts is one of the most valuable acquisitions."

"The only cure for fanaticism is philosophy."

"All its rules and maxims are founded on experience and observation."

"Nothing is more common than for men to think that existing customs are eternal and unalterable."

"Happiness is the state of mind most productive of virtue."

"Reason alone can never be a motive to any action of the will."

"The greatest heights of friendship are only found in equality and mutual respect."

"Courage and passion are the sinews of virtue."

"The most improper method we can take is to make such arrogant pretensions to a small part of knowledge."

"We are all prone to the same errors, actuated by the same passions, and influenced by the same motives."

"Everything is created for some end, and there is not anything useless in nature."

"Our judgments concerning historical events should be guided by experience and observation."

"The mind of man is more powerful than all the locks and bars in the world."

"To discover the true origin of morality is to understand human nature."

"True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and nothing but what is necessary."

"The popular religions and superstitions are sprung from egregious ignorance, sloth, and superstition."