Date: 1748, 1777

"But may we not hope, that philosophy, cultivated with care, and encouraged by the attention of the public, may carry its researches still farther, and discover, at least in some degree, the secret springs and principles, by which the human mind is actuated in its operations?"

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1777

"In vain do we hope, that men, from frequent disappointment, will at last abandon such airy sciences, and discover the proper province of human reason."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1777

"And while the body is confined to one planet, along which it creeps with pain and difficulty; the thought can in an instant transport us into the most distant regions of the universe; or even beyond the universe, into the unbounded chaos, where nature is supposed to lie in total confusion."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1777

"Restore either of them that sense in which he is deficient; by opening this new inlet for his sensations, you also open an inlet for the ideas; and he finds no difficulty in conceiving these objects."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1777

"If we anatomize all the other reasonings of this nature, we shall find that they are founded on the relation of cause and effect, and that this relation is either near or remote, direct or collateral."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1777

"This variety of terms, which may seem so unphilosophical, is intended only to express that act of the mind, which renders realities, or what is taken for such, more present to us than fictions, causes them to weigh more in the thought, and gives them a superior influence on the passions and imag...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1777

"And if the case be the same with the other relations or principles of associations, this may be established as a general law, which takes place in all the operations of the mind."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1777

"The concurrence of these several views or glimpses imprints the idea more strongly on the imagination; gives it superior force and vigour; renders its influence on the passions and affections more sensible; and in a word, begets that reliance or security, which constitutes the nature of belief a...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1777

"They [these impressions] are not only placed in a full light themselves, but may throw light on their correspondent ideas, which lie in obscurity."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1777

"And by this means, we may, perhaps, attain a new microscope or species of optics, by which, in the moral sciences, the most minute, and most simple ideas may be so enlarged as to fall readily under our apprehension, and be equally known with the grossest and most sensible ideas, that can be the ...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)