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
The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Popularity and patriotism can lead to the rise of oppressive power.
David Hume warns that the pursuit of popularity and the fervent display of patriotism often serve as pathways that can lead to the establishment of authoritarian power structures. This suggests that when individuals prioritize popularity and national pride over critical thinking and justice, they may inadvertently support tyranny and oppression disguised as patriotism.
Themes
PopularityPatriotismPowerTyrannyPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a political debate to illustrate the dangers of blind nationalism.
More from David Hume
All quotes βEloquence, 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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