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
Liberty of any kind is never lost all at once.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Liberty is gradually lost over time, not in a sudden event.
David Hume's quote suggests that the erosion of freedom is a slow and often unnoticed process. It highlights the importance of vigilance in protecting one’s liberties, as they can diminish incrementally rather than being taken away in an outright manner.
Themes
LibertyFreedomLossVigilancePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about civil rights, to emphasize the need for continued awareness.
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.
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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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The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness
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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.
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
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True religion, like our founding principles, requires that the rights of the disbeliever be equally acknowledged with those of the believer.
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A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.
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Defense is superior to opulence.
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