David Hume Quotes on Virtue
Hume's Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40) Book III and the Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751) develop the most influential sentimentalist alternative to rationalist moral philosophy. The cardinal claim is that reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions: moral distinctions are not derived from reason but from the natural sentiments of approval and disapproval through which human beings respond to character traits useful or agreeable to themselves or to others. Sympathy — the natural mechanism by which human minds communicate sentiments to one another — supplies the explanation for the apparent universality and impartiality of moral judgment, and the framework grounds Hume's account of the natural and artificial virtues, the social conventions of justice, and the genealogical analysis of moral obligation.
Quotes
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“He is happy whom circumstances suit his temper; but he is more excellent who suits his temper to any circumstances.”
§ 6.9 : Of Qualities Useful to Ourselves, Pt. 1 -
“When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken.”
§ 9.13 : Conclusion, Pt. 1 -
“The corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst.”
Part X - With regard to courage or abasement -
“Playfully ironic letter to Adam Smith regarding the positive reception of "The Theory of Moral Sentiments”
A wise man's kingdom is his own breast: or, if he ever looks farther, it will only be to the judgment of a select few, who are free from prejudices , and capable of examining his work . Nothing indeed can be a stronger presumption of falsehood than the approbation of the multitude; and Phocion, you know, always suspected himself of some blunder when he was attended with the applauses of the popula -
“Heaven and Hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and the bad; but the greatest part of mankind float betwixt vice and virtue. -- Were one to go round the world with an intention of giving a good supper to the righteous, and a sound drubbing to the wicked, he would frequently be embarrassed in his choice, and would find that the merits and the demerits of most men and women scarcely amount to the value of either.”
Essay on the Immortality of the Soul