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 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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Human minds influence each other through shared emotions and opinions, often gradually.
David Hume suggests that human beings are like mirrors to one another, reflecting not only feelings but also beliefs and attitudes. This interconnectedness means that our thoughts and emotions can influence and change one another over time, often imperceptibly, shaping our collective understanding and experiences.
Themes
EmotionsReflectionInfluencePassionsOpinions
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about empathy, one might quote Hume to illustrate how people connect through shared feelings.
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.
David HumeRead
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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But I think I’m coloured by my own wishes, & experimental mood.
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