Your corn is ripe today; mine will be so tomorrow. 'Tis profitable for us both, that I should labour with you today, and that you should aid me tomorrow.
David HumeRead
From the apparent usefulness of the social virtues, it has readily been inferred by sceptics, both ancient and modern, that all moral distinctions arise from education, and were, at first, invented, and afterwards encouraged ... in order to render men tractable, and subdue their natural ferocity and selfishness, which incapacitated them for society.
Interpretation
Hume suggests that social virtues are developed through education to tame human nature's selfish instincts.
In this quote, David Hume posits that the moral distinctions and social virtues we hold are not innate but rather cultivated through education. He argues that these virtues were created to manage humanity's natural tendencies toward ferocity and selfishness, thereby enabling individuals to live harmoniously within society. Hume challenges the notion that morality is an inherent quality, highlighting the role of societal structure and upbringing in shaping moral behavior.
In practice
In a discussion about ethics at a philosophy conference.
Your corn is ripe today; mine will be so tomorrow. 'Tis profitable for us both, that I should labour with you today, and that you should aid me tomorrow.
Eloquence, at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection, but addresses itself entirely to the desires and affections, captivating the willing hearers, and subduing their understanding.
All that belongs to human understanding, in this deep ignorance and obscurity, is to be sceptical, or at least cautious, and not to admit of any hypothesis whatever, much less of any which is supported by no appearance of probability.
The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness
There is a very remarkable inclination in human nature to bestow on external objects the same emotions which it observes in itself, and to find every where those ideas which are most present to it.
To have recourse to the veracity of the supreme Being, in order to prove the veracity of our senses, is surely making a very unexpected circuit.
A faith without some doubts is like a human body with no antobodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask the hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person's faith can collapse almost overnight if she failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection.
The 'working poor,' as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society.
"Do not repine, my friends," said Mr. Pecksniff, tenderly. "Do not weep for me. It is chronic."
My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?
No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ.
Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because - what with trolls and dwarfs and so on - speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.