Quotes from book

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Source: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Section 10 : Of Miracles Pt. 1
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
Source: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding/An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

Section 10 : Of Miracles Pt. 1
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

§ 8.27
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

§ 4.11
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

§ 8.23
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

Section 4 : Sceptical Doubts Concerning The Operations of The Understanding
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

Of Liberty and Necessity, Part II (http://www.bartleby.com/37/3/12.html)
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
Context: THERE is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than, in philosophical disputes, to endeavour the refutation of any hypothesis, by a pretence of its dangerous consequences to religion and morality. When any opinion leads to absurdities, it is certainly false; but it is not certain that an opinion is false, because it is of dangerous consequence. Such topics, therefore, ought entirely to be forborne; as serving nothing to the discovery of truth, but only to make the person of an antagonist odious.

Section 12 : Of the Academical or Sceptical Philosophy Pt. 3
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

Section 10 : Of Miracles Pt. 2
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

§ 8.23
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

§ 4.8
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

§ 8.18
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

§ 4.9
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

Section 10 : Of Miracles Pt. 1
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

Variant (perhaps a paraphrase of this passage): It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom.
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
Context: Custom, then, is the great guide of human life. It is that principle alone which renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past. Without the influence of custom, we should be entirely ignorant of every matter of fact beyond what is immediately present to the memory and senses. We should never know how to adjust means to ends, or to employ our natural powers in the production of any effect. There would be an end at once of all action, as well as of the chief part of speculation.

Section 10 : Of Miracles Pt. 2
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
Context: Eloquence, when at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection; but addressing itself entirely to the fancy or the affections, captivates the willing hearers, and subdues their understanding. Happily, this pitch it seldom attains. But what a Tully or a Demosthenes could scarcely effect over a Roman or Athenian audience, every Capuchin, every itinerant or stationary teacher can perform over the generality of mankind, and in a higher degree, by touching such gross and vulgar passions.

Section 1 : Of The Different Species of Philosophy
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
Context: Nature has pointed out a mixed kind of life as most suitable to the human race, and secretly admonished them to allow none of these biases to draw too much, so as to incapacitate them for other occupations and entertainments. Indulge your passion for science, says she, but let your science be human, and such as may have a direct reference to action and society. Abstruse thought and profound researches I prohibit, and will severely punish, by the pensive melancholy which they introduce, by the endless uncertainty in which they involve you, and by the cold reception which your pretended discoveries shall meet with, when communicated. Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.

Section X: Of Miracles; Part I. 87
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
Context: In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.