Hume, David

"Man can neither create nor destroy; he can only alter and combine the matter which nature affords him."

"The balance of power is a political maxim of the greatest importance."

"Enthusiasm is the malady of philosophers."

"Superstition, on the contrary, inspires men with such reverence to the divine majesty."

"It is impossible to reason justly without understanding the nature of justice."

"The minds of men are mirrors to one another, not only because they reflect each other's emotions but because those rays reverberate back upon the original affections."

"The humours of the stomach and intestines are the seat of the passions."

"A man may promise upon honor to do a thing impossible."

"The strength of the mind should not be measured by its subtlety, but by its amplitude."

"Every event has a cause; every effect depends on causes antecedent to it."

"The general peace and order of society requires great discretion and caution."

"Nothing is more admirable in the human race than its capacity for learning and improvement."

"The palate of every man is a standard of taste in eating, drinking, and now in the fine arts."

"Fear and weakness are at the bottom of all superstition."

"The virtuous and vicious dispositions of the mind do not follow the same laws as the external appearance."

"Learning too much by books enfebles the mind."

"Prosperity consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants."

"A man who has once been seduced by the jargon of the schools is never afterwards cured of it."

"The most violent and most visible passions of mankind are ambition and vanity."

"Morals and natural philosophy have indeed an intimate connection together."

"The man of virtue is the man of nature."

"Patience is the virtue of a philosopher, not of a conquerer."

"The imagination is not to be controlled in its flights and operations."

"All men and women, as such, are equal to one another; and no one, by birth, is invested with rights superior to another."

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

"Extreme skepticism is as dangerous as extreme credulity."

"The progress of knowledge has been the fruit of the labors of mankind."

"I would rather be a poor man in a cottage with a free mind than a king with a captive one."

"No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish."

"The seeds of great discoveries are constantly floating around us, but they only take root in minds well prepared to receive them."