David Hume

“Now as we call every thing custom , which proceeds from a past repetition, without any new reasoning or conclusion, we may establish it as a certain truth, that all the belief, which follows upon any present impression, is deriv'd solely from that origin. Part 3, Section 8”

“We must therefore glean up our experiments in this science from a cautious observation of human life, and take them as they appear in the common course of the world, by men's behaviour in company, in affairs, and in their pleasures. Where experiments of this kind are judiciously collected and compared, we may hope to establish on them a science, which will not be inferior in certainty, and will be much superior in utility to any other of human comprehension. Introduction”

“Here am I who have written on all sorts of subjects calculated to excite hostility, moral, political, and religious, and yet I have no enemies”

“With regard to politics and the character of princes and great men, I think I am very moderate. My views of things are more conformable to Whig principles; my representation of persons to Tory prejudices. Nothing can so much prove that men commonly regard more persons than things, as to find that I am commonly numbered among the Tories. E. C. Mossner, Life of David Hume (Clarendon Press, 2001), p. 311.”

“The conclusion [of the essay 'Of the Protestant Succession'] shows me a Whig, but a very sceptical one. Letter to Henry Home (9 February 1748), quoted in J. Y. T. Greig, The Letters of David Hume: Volume I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932), p. 111”

“Heaven and Hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and the bad; but the greatest part of mankind float betwixt vice and virtue.”

“As to the Approbation or Esteem of those Blockheads who call themselves the Public, & whom a Bookseller, a Lord, a Priest, or a Party can guide, I do most heartily despise it. Letter 138, To Gilbert Elliot of Minto; August 9, 1757”

“The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster. On Suicide”

“Does a man of sense run after every silly tale of hobgoblins or fairies, and canvass particularly the evidence ? I never knew anyone, that examined and deliberated about nonsense who did not believe it before the end of his enquiries. Letters”

“The Theory of Moral Sentiments”