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
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
Interpretation
What this quote means
Human emotions can cloud rational thought and philosophical conclusions.
David Hume suggests that strong emotions and passions can overwhelm our ability to think critically and deeply, leading even the most profound thinkers to become ordinary individuals concerned with their feelings rather than rationality. This highlights the struggle between emotional experiences and logical reasoning in human nature.
Themes
EmotionsReasonPhilosophyPassionHuman Nature
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about ethics, one might use this quote to illustrate how emotional biases can affect moral reasoning.
More from David Hume
All quotes →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.
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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.
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The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness
David HumeRead
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.
David HumeRead
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.
David HumeRead
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