Date: January 1739

"We speak not strictly and philosophically, when we talk of the combat of passion and of reason."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"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."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"A trivial good may, from certain circumstances, produce a desire superior to what arises from the greatest and most valuable enjoyment; nor is there any thing more extraordinary in this, than in mechanics to see one pound weight raise up a hundred by the advantage of its situation."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"And as an image necessarily resembles its object, must not the frequent placing of these resembling perceptions in the chain of thought, convey the imagination more easily from one link to another, and make the whole seem like the continuance of one object?"

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"Pity, then, is related to benevolence, and malice to anger; and as benevolence has been already found to be connected with love, by a natural and original quality, and anger with hatred, it is by this chain the passions of pity and malice are connected with love and hatred."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"Those perceptions which enter with most force and violence, we may name impressions; and, under this name, I comprehend all our sensations, passions, and emotions, as they make their first appearance in the soul."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"The one seems to be, in a manner, the reflection of the other; so that all the perceptions of the mind are double, and appear both as impressions and ideas."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"My memory, indeed, informs me of the existence of many objects; but, then, this information extends not beyond their past existence, nor do either my senses or memory give any testimony to the continuance of their being."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"Now, if we consider the human mind, we shall find that with regard to the passions, it is not of the nature of a wind instrument of music, which, in running over all the notes, immediately loses the sound after the breath ceases; but rather resembles a string-instrument, where, after each s...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"For such is the unsteadiness and activity of thought, that the images of every thing, especially of goods and evils, are always wandering in the mind; and were it mov'd by every idle conception of this kind, it would never enjoy a moment's peace and tranquillity."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)