Your corn is ripe today; mine will be so tomorrow. 'Tis profitable for us both, that I should labour with you today, and that you should aid me tomorrow.
David HumeRead
From the apparent usefulness of the social virtues, it has readily been inferred by sceptics, both ancient and modern, that all moral distinctions arise from education, and were, at first, invented, and afterwards encouraged ... in order to render men tractable, and subdue their natural ferocity and selfishness, which incapacitated them for society.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Hume suggests that social virtues are developed through education to tame human nature's selfish instincts.
In this quote, David Hume posits that the moral distinctions and social virtues we hold are not innate but rather cultivated through education. He argues that these virtues were created to manage humanity's natural tendencies toward ferocity and selfishness, thereby enabling individuals to live harmoniously within society. Hume challenges the notion that morality is an inherent quality, highlighting the role of societal structure and upbringing in shaping moral behavior.
Themes
MoralityEducationSocietyVirtuesHuman Nature
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about ethics at a philosophy conference.
More from David Hume
All quotes →Eloquence, at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection, but addresses itself entirely to the desires and affections, captivating the willing hearers, and subduing their understanding.
David HumeRead
All that belongs to human understanding, in this deep ignorance and obscurity, is to be sceptical, or at least cautious, and not to admit of any hypothesis whatever, much less of any which is supported by no appearance of probability.
David HumeRead
The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness
David HumeRead
There is a very remarkable inclination in human nature to bestow on external objects the same emotions which it observes in itself, and to find every where those ideas which are most present to it.
David HumeRead
To have recourse to the veracity of the supreme Being, in order to prove the veracity of our senses, is surely making a very unexpected circuit.
David HumeRead
Similar quotes
If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.
Mark TwainRead
Remember and help America remember that the fellowship of human beings is more important than the fellowship of race and class and gender in a democratic society.
Marian Wright EdelmanRead
I don't believe what the papers are saying They're just out to capture my dime, Exaggerating this, exaggerating that.
Paul SimonRead
Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.
Alexander HamiltonRead
Get to know other worlds, if only for comparison. I am near, too near for him to dream of me.
Wislawa SzymborskaRead