Search Results in Quotes

20 results for your search term: “david hume”.

David Hume on the Perception of Beauty

On the contrary, a thousand different sentiments, excited by the same object, are all right: Beca...

David Hume ponders why the many can be governed so easily by the few and concludes that both force and opinion play a role (1777)

Nothing appears more surprizing to those, who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, th...

David Hume examines the pride of the turkey (and other creatures) (1739)

’Tis plain, that almost in every species of creatures, but especially of the nobler kind, there a...

David Hume on how the prosperity of one’s neighbors increases one’s own prosperity (1777)

Having endeavoured to remove one species of ill-founded jealousy, which is so prevalent among com...

David Hume on the origin of government in warfare, and the “perpetual struggle” between Liberty and Power (1777)

It is probable, that the first ascendant of one man over multitudes begun during a state of war; ...

David Hume believes we should assume all men are self-interested knaves when it comes to politics (1777)

Political writers have established it as a maxim, that, in contriving any system of government, a...

David Hume argued that Individual Liberty emerged slowly out of the “violent system of government” which had earlier prevailed in Europe (1778)

One chief advantage, which resulted from the introduction and progress of the arts, was the intro...

David Hume on property as a convention which gradually emerges from society (1739)

For when men, from their early education in society, have become sensible of the infinite advanta...

Thomas Paine asks how it is that established governments came into being, his answer, is "banditti of ruffians" seized control and turned themselves into monarchs (1792)

It is impossible that such governments as have hitherto existed in the world, could have commence...

David Hume argues that “love of liberty” in some individuals often attracts the religious inquisitor to persecute them and thereby drive society into a state of “ignorance, corruption, and bondage” (1757)

[V]irtue, knowledge, love of liberty, are the qualities which call down the fatal vengeance of in...

Mary Wollstonecraft believes that women are no more naturally subservient than men and nobody, male or female, values freedom unless they have had to struggle to attain it (1792)

That woman is naturally weak, or degraded by a concurrence of circumstances, is, I think, clear. ...

Adam Smith on how Government Regulation and Taxes might drive a Man to Drink (1766)

Man is an anxious animal and must have his care swept off by something that can exhilarate the sp...

James Madison on the need for the “separation of powers” because “men are not angels,” Federalist 51 (1788)

But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same departme...

Alexander Pope on how private “self love” can lead to the public good (1732)

So drives Self-love thro’ just and thro’ unjust, [269] To one man’s power, ambition, lucre, lust:...

Adam Ferguson on Love, Self-Interest, and Pleasure

Love is an affection which carries the attention of the mind beyond itself, and is the sense of a...

Algernon Sidney on de facto vs. de jure political power (1698)

No man can have a power over a nation otherwise than de jure, or de facto. He who pretends to hav...

Adam Smith, Selfishness, and Sympathy

How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which ...

Forrest McDonald discusses the reading habits of colonial Americans and concludes that their thinking about politics and their shared values was based upon their wide reading, especially of history (1978)

… despite their differences the Revolutionary generation did achieve independence, they did write...

Mercy Otis Warren asks why people are so willing to obey the government and answers that it is supineness, fear of resisting, and the long habit of obedience (1805)

[T]here is a certain supineness which generally overspreads the multitude, and disposes mankind t...

Herbert Spencer worries that the violence and brutalities of football will make it that much harder to create a society in which individual rights will be mutually respected (1879)

A nature which generates international hatreds and intense desires for revenge–which breeds dueli...