David Hume

"The greatest genius is not above being sometimes outdone by the vulgar in the practical arts."

"Nothing so important as to know the measure of our own strength."

"A man of sense and education should think too well of mankind."

"The most violent and sudden changes in life may come to us from causes seemingly trivial."

"All moral distinctions arise from certain mental sentiments."

"Sympathy is the chief source of moral distinctions."

"The mind always forms such a conclusion though the conclusion be in itself uncertain."

"There are few human beings who don't live for the moment."

"The most valuable acquisitions are knowledge and virtue."

"All the nice variations of beauty depend on the particular fabric of human nature."

"True friendship is a slow-growing plant."

"The mind must be composed and tranquil to make discoveries."

"Every man has a certain pride which he wishes not to have diminished."

"Great minds are characterized by a perpetual activity."

"The human heart is not yet made to this degree of degradation."

"Nothing is so irregular as taste in literature."

"The heart always takes the lead and the understanding follows."

"Contrivance, design, and final causes are now almost universally exploded."

"The greatest truths are the simplest things in the world."

"To be a philosophical sceptic is to be a true philosopher."

"Where am I, or what is the nature of my existence."

"The mind is a kind of stage where perceptions make their appearance in succession."

"An enthusiast has no reason to fear his adversaries."

"The understanding must be directed by some new principles in practice."

"There is no such thing as chance in the world."

"Every impression is accompanied by a corresponding idea."

"The operations of the mind are more subtle and refined than the gross operations of body."

"I never asserted so absurd an opinion as that anything might arise without a cause."

"When we examine this pretension we shall find upon inquiry that it is nothing else but a peculiar sentiment."

"The great inaccuracy of those crude and illdigested systems makes them rather objects of scorn."