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Reason4 quotes
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. — David Hume · 1739The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one. Mere reason is insufficient to convince us of its veracity: And whoever is moved by Faith to assent to it, is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience. — David Hume · 1748If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning, concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: For it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion. — David Hume · 1748Opposing one species of superstition to another, set them a quarrelling; while we ourselves, during their fury and contention, happily make our escape, into the calm, tho' obscure, regions of philosophy. — David Hume · 1757Travel4 quotes
There are no foreign land; it is the traveller only that is foreign. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1883We are all travellers in what John Bunyan calls the wilderness of this world....and the best that we find in our travels is an honest friend. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1879To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1881For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1879Human nature3 quotes
The heart of man is made to reconcile contradictions. — David Hume · 1741All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1886These are my politics: to change what we can; to better what we can; but still to bear in mind that man is but a devil weakly fettered by some generous beliefs and impositions; and for no word however nobly sounding, and no cause however just and pious, to relax the stricture of these bonds. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1885The human condition3 quotes
Of all the animals, with which this globe is peopled, there is none towards whom nature seems, at first sight, to have exercis'd more cruelty than towards man, in the numberless wants and necessities, with which she has loaded him, and in the slender means, which she affords to the relieving these necessities. — David Hume · 1739Old and young, we are all on our last cruise. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1881Every one lives by selling something. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1892Death2 quotes
It is better to be a fool than to be dead. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1881And come he slow, or come he fast,
It is but Death who comes at last. — Sir Walter Scott · 1808Depression2 quotes
A propensity to hope and joy is real riches: One to fear and sorrow, real poverty. — David Hume · 1758I get in the dumps at times, and don't open my mouth for days on end. You must not think I am sulky when I do that. Just let me alone, and I'll soon be right. — Arthur Conan Doyle · 1887Evidence2 quotes
It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all of the evidence. It biases the judgement. — Arthur Conan Doyle · 1887A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence. — David Hume · 1748Food2 quotes
My definition of Man is, "a Cooking Animal." The beasts have memory, judgment, and all the faculties and passions of our mind, in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook... Man alone can dress a good dish; and every man whatever is more or less a cook, in seasoning what he himself eats. — James Boswell · 1773Many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese-toasted, mostly. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1882Inevitability of death2 quotes
Old and young, we are all on our last cruise. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1881And come he slow, or come he fast,
It is but Death who comes at last. — Sir Walter Scott · 1808Man and animals2 quotes
The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster. — David Hume · 1776Recollect that the Almighty, who gave the dog to be companion of our pleasures and our toils, hath invested him with a nature noble and incapable of deceit. — Sir Walter Scott · 1825Mathematics2 quotes
If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning, concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: For it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion. — David Hume · 1748The great advantage of the mathematical sciences above the moral consists in this, that the ideas of the former, being sensible, are always clear and determinate. — David Hume · 1748Philosophy2 quotes
Opposing one species of superstition to another, set them a quarrelling; while we ourselves, during their fury and contention, happily make our escape, into the calm, tho' obscure, regions of philosophy. — David Hume · 1757Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous. — David Hume · 1739Scotland2 quotes
In the highlands, in the country places,
Where the old plain men have rosy faces,
And the young fair maidens
Quiet eyes. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1894O Caledonia, stern and wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood. — Sir Walter Scott · 1805The open road2 quotes
The untented Kosmos my abode,
I pass, a willful stranger;
My mistress still the open road
And the bright eyes of danger. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1894Wealth I ask not, hope nor love,
Nor a friend to know me;
All I ask, the heaven above
And the road below me. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1894War2 quotes
Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall, and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end. — Douglas Haig · 1918Were I to... Take a peasant by the shoulders and whisper to him, "In your lifetime, have you known peace?" wait for his answer, shake his shoulders and transform him into his father, and ask him the same question, and transform him in turn into his father, I would never hear the word "yes" if I carried my questioning of the dead back for a thousand years. — Rebecca West · 1941World War I2 quotes
Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall, and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end. — Douglas Haig · 1918The Germans, if this Government is returned, are going to pay every penny; they are going to be squeezed as a lemon is squeezed-until the pips squeak. — Eric Geddes · 1918Acquisitiveness1 quote
Of all the animals, with which this globe is peopled, there is none towards whom nature seems, at first sight, to have exercis'd more cruelty than towards man, in the numberless wants and necessities, with which she has loaded him, and in the slender means, which she affords to the relieving these necessities. — David Hume · 1739Adventure1 quote
The untented Kosmos my abode,
I pass, a willful stranger;
My mistress still the open road
And the bright eyes of danger. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1894Anti-capitalism1 quote
The worker is the slave of capitalist society, the female worker is the slave of that slave. — James Connolly · 1915Anti-clericalism1 quote
In all ages of the world, priests have been enemies to liberty. — David Hume · 1741Appearance vs. reality1 quote
What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done. — Arthur Conan Doyle · 1887Art1 quote
Any authentic work of art must start an argument between the artist and his audience. — Rebecca West · 1957Artist and audience1 quote
Any authentic work of art must start an argument between the artist and his audience. — Rebecca West · 1957Australia1 quote
We are dealing with an exceptionally astute and dangerous man...one of the most unscrupulous rascals that Australia has ever evolved—and for a young country it has turned out some very finished types. — Arthur Conan Doyle · 1911Authenticity1 quote
To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1882Autumn1 quote
November's sky is chill and drear,
November's leaf is red and sear. — Sir Walter Scott · 1808Beauty1 quote
Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them. — David Hume · 1758Beauty of nature1 quote
There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion. It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers. — Arthur Conan Doyle · 1893Beliefs1 quote
A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence. — David Hume · 1748Books1 quote
Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1881