Date: January 1739

"In this respect, I cannot compare the soul more properly to any thing than to a republic or commonwealth, in which the several members are united by the reciprocal ties of government and subordination, and give rise to other persons who propagate the same republic in the incessant changes of its...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"Let us therefore apply this method of enquiry, which is found so just and useful in reasonings concerning the body, to our present anatomy of the mind, and see what discoveries we can make by it."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"On the appearance of such an object [the mind] awakes, as it were, from a dream; the blood flows with a new tide; the heart is elevated; and the whole man acquires a vigour which he cannot command in his solitary and calm moments."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"On the other hand, impressions and passions are susceptible of an entire union, and, like colours, may be blended so perfectly together, that each of them may lose itself, and contribute only to vary that uniform impression which arises from the whole."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"Ideas may be compared to the extension and solidity of matter and impressions, especially reflective ones, to colours, tastes, smells, and other sensible qualities."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"As nature has given to the body certain appetites and inclinations, which she encreases, diminishes, or changes according to the situation of the fluids or solids, she has proceeded in the same manner with the mind."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"Are the changes of our body from infancy to old age more regular and certain than those of our mind and conduct."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"Here is a connected chain of natural causes and voluntary actions; but the mind feels no difference betwixt them in passing from one link to another."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"[I]t follows that every thing which invigorates and enlivens the soul, whether by touching the passions or imagination, naturally conveys to the fancy this inclination for ascent, and determines it to run against the natural stream of its thoughts and conceptions"

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"Are not these as plain proofs, that the passions of fear and hope are mixtures of grief and joy, as in optics it is a proof, that a coloured ray of the sun passing through a prism, is a composition of two others, when, as you diminish or encrease the quantity of either, you find it prevail propo...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)