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David Hume Quotes about Passion

All David Hume Quotes Affection Age Ambition Appearance Arrogance Art Atheism Beauty Belief Character Common Sense Constitution Corruption Country Curiosity Death Desire Determination Doubt Empathy Enthusiasm Ethics Evil Experience Feelings Friendship Genius Giving God Happiness Heart History Honesty Human Nature Humility Ignorance Imagination Imperfection Judgement Judgment Justice Knowledge Labor Learning Liberty Life Lying Mankind Morality Nature Office Pain Painting Passion quotes Past Perception Philosophy Pleasure Praise Purpose Quality Reality Reflection Religion Revenge Running Science Sorrow Soul Spring Study Truth Understanding Universe Virtue War Weakness

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.

Philosophy, Passion, Office

A Treatise upon Human Nature bk. 2 (1739)

Nothing appears more surprising to those, who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission, with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers.

Philosophical, Passion, Eye

David Hume (2010). “Moral and Political Philosophy”, p.406, Simon and Schuster

It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless appetite for applause

Believe, Passion, Deities

David Hume (1793). “An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion”, p.595

Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason of itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore, are not conclusions of our reason.

Passion, Morality, Action

David Hume (1874). “A Treatise on Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects; and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion”, p.235

When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities.

Humility, Passion, Men

Avarice, or the desire of gain, is a universal passion which operates at all times, at all places, and upon all persons.

Passion, Greed, Desire

David Hume (1998). “Selected Essays”, p.58, Oxford Paperbacks

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.

Philosophy, Passion, Slave

A Treatise upon Human Nature bk. 2 (1739)

Friendship is a calm and sedate affection, conducted by reason and cemented by habit; springing from long acquaintance and mutual obligations, without jealousies or fears, and without those feverish fits of heat and cold, which cause such an agreeable torment in the amorous passion.

Friendship, Passion, Long

David Hume (2016). “Essays Moral, Political, Literary: Revision of Great Book”, p.161, VM eBooks

Nothing more powerfully excites any affection than to conceal some part of its object, by throwing it into a kind of shade, whichat the same time that it shows enough to prepossess us in favour of the object, leaves still some work for the imagination.

Passion, Imagination, Shade

David Hume, Tom L. Beauchamp (2007). “A Dissertation on the Passions: The Natural History of Religion : a Critical Edition”, p.112, Oxford University Press

Any pride or haughtiness, is displeasing to us, merely because it shocks our own pride, and leads us by sympathy into comparison, which causes the disagreeable passion of humility.

Passion, Humility, Pride

David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.522, Delphi Classics

The feelings of our heart, the agitation of our passions, the vehemence of our affections, dissipate all its conclusions, and reduce the profound philosopher to a mere plebeian

Passion, Heart, Profound

David Hume (1772). “An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An. inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion”, p.5

Delicacy of taste has the same effect as delicacy of passion; it enlarges the sphere both of our happiness and our misery.

Passion, Delicacy, Taste

David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.578, Delphi Classics

Truth is disputable; not taste: what exists in the nature of things is the standard of our judgement; what each man feels within himself is the standard of sentiment. Propositions in geometry may be proved, systems in physics may be controverted; but the harmony of verse, the tenderness of passion, the brilliancy of wit, must give immediate pleasure. No man reasons concerning another's beauty; but frequently concerning the justice or injustice of his actions.

Passion, Men, Giving

David Hume (2016). “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Revision of Great Book”, p.131, VM eBooks

The minds of men are mirrors to one another, not only because they reflect each other's emotions, but also because those rays of passions, sentiments and opinions may be often reverberated, and may decay away by insensible degrees.

Passion, Men, Mirrors

David Hume (1874). “A Treatise on Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects; and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion”, p.152

I say then, that 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. 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 imagination.

Taken, Passion, Reality

David Hume (1758). “Essays and Treatises on several subjects, etc. New edition”, p.311

Avarice, the spur of industry, is so obstinate a passion, and works its way through so many real dangers and difficulties, that it is not likely to be scared by an imaginary danger, which is so small, that it scarcely admits of calculation. Commerce, therefore, in my opinion, is apt to decay in absolute governments, not because it is there less secure, but because it is less honourable.

Real, Passion, Government

'Essays' (1741-2) 'Of Civil Liberty'

Nothing can be more unphilosophical than to be positive or dogmatical on any subject; and even if excessive scepticism could be maintained it would not be more destructive to all just reasoning and inquiry. When men are the most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken, and have there given reins to passion, without that proper deliberation and suspense which can alone secure them from the grossest absurdities.

Passion, Men, Being Positive

David Hume (2016). “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Revision of Great Book”, p.213, VM eBooks

It is a certain rule that wit and passion are entirely incompatible. When the affections are moved, there is no place for the imagination.

Passion, Imagination, Affection

David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.697, Delphi Classics

Reason, in a strict sense, as meaning the judgment of truth and falsehood, can never, of itself, be any motive to the will, and can have no influence but so far as it touches some passion or affection. Abstract relations of ideas are the object of curiosity, not of volition. And matters of fact, where they are neither good nor evil, where they neither excite desire nor aversion, are totally indifferent, and whether known or unknown, whether mistaken or rightly apprehended, cannot be regarded as any motive to action.

Truth, Passion, Ideas

David Hume, Tom L. Beauchamp (2007). “A Dissertation on the Passions: The Natural History of Religion : a Critical Edition”, p.24, Oxford University Press

If morality had naturally no influence on human passions and actions, it were in vain to take such pains to inculcate it; and nothing would be more fruitless than that multitude of rules and precepts with which all moralists abound.

Pain, Passion, Would Be

David Hume (2016). “A Treatise of Human Nature: Revision of Great Book”, p.425, VM eBooks

But the most common species of love is that which first arises from beauty, and afterwards diffuses itself into kindness and into the bodily appetite. Kindness or esteem, and the appetite to generation, are too remote to unite easily together. The one is, perhaps, the most refined passion of the soul; the other the most gross and vulgar. The love of beauty is placed in a just medium betwixt them, and partakes of both their natures: From whence it proceeds, that it is so singularly fitted to produce both.

Love, Kindness, Passion

David Hume (2015). “A Treatise of Human Nature: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.296, 谷月社

Eloquence, when at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection; but addressing itself entirely to the fancy or the affections, captivates the willing hearers, and subdues their understanding. Happily, this pitch it seldom attains. But what a Tully or a Demosthenes could scarcely effect over a Roman or Athenian audience, every Capuchin, every itinerant or stationary teacher can perform over the generality of mankind, and in a higher degree, by touching such gross and vulgar passions.

Teacher, Passion, Reflection

David Hume (2012). “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”, p.127, tredition

Jealousy is a painful passion; yet without some share of it, the agreeable affection of love has difficulty to subsist in its full force and violence.

Jealousy, Passion, Violence

David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.1298, Delphi Classics

The great charm of poetry consists in lively pictures of the sublime passions, magnanimity, courage, disdain of fortune; or thoseof the tender affections, love and friendship; which warm the heart, and diffuse over it similar sentiments and emotions.

Heart, Passion, Poetry

David Hume (1758). “Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects”, p.453

Vanity is so closely allied to virtue, and to love the fame of laudable actions approaches so near the love of laudable actions for their own sake, that these passions are more capable of mixture than any other kinds of affection; and it is almost impossible to have the latter without some degree of the former.

Passion, Vanity, Degrees

David Hume (2016). “Essays Moral, Political, Literary: Revision of Great Book”, p.66, VM eBooks

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