Quote #12

We speak not strictly and philosophically when we talk of the combat of passion and of reason. 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. As this opinion may appear somewhat extraordinary, it may not be improper to confirm it by some other considerations.

More from David Hume

  1. No quality of human nature is more remarkable, both in itself and in its consequences, than that propensity we have to sympathize with othe…
  2. What may at first occur on this head, is, that as nothing can be contrary to truth or reason, except what has a reference to it, and as the…
  3. Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.
  4. There is an inconvenience which attends all abstruse reasoning. that it may silence, without convincing an antagonist, and requires the sam…
  5. This deficiency in our ideas is not, indeed, perceived in common life, nor are we sensible, that in the most usual conjunctions of cause an…
  6. Morality is a subject that interests us above all others: We fancy the peace of society to be at stake in every decision concerning it; and…
  7. I am first affrighted and confounded with that forelorn solitude, in which I am plac'd in my philosophy, and fancy myself some strange unco…
  8. Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason of itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, the…

All David Hume quotes