Belief is nothing but a more vivid, lively, forcible, firm, steady conception of an object, than what the imagination alone is ever able to attain.
David HumeAny person seasoned with a just sense of the imperfections of natural reason, will fly to revealed truth with the greatest avidity.
David HumeIt is more rational to suspect knavery and folly than to discount, at a stroke, everything that past experience has taught me about the way things actually work
David HumeJustice is a moral virtue, merely because it has that tendency to the good of mankind, and indeed is nothing but an artificial invention to that purpose. The same may be said of allegiance, of the laws of nations, of modesty, and of good manners. All these are mere human contrivances for the interest of society.
David HumeIf ... the past may be no Rule for the future, all Experience becomes useless and can give rise to no Inferences or Conclusions.
David HumeEvery disastrous accident alarms us, and sets us on enquiries concerning the principles whence it arose: Apprehensions spring up with regard to futurity: And the mind, sunk into diffidence, terror, and melancholy, has recourse to every method of appeasing those secret intelligent powers, on whom our fortune is supposed entirely to depend.
David Hume