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
To be a philosophical sceptic is, in a man of letters, the first and most essential to being a sound, believing Christian.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Philosophical skepticism is essential for a thoughtful and authentic faith in Christianity.
David Hume suggests that to engage deeply with faith, one must first adopt a skeptical approach, questioning and examining beliefs. This skepticism leads to a more robust understanding and acceptance of Christian faith, as it encourages individuals to reflect carefully on their beliefs rather than accept them blindly.
Themes
SkepticismFaithPhilosophyChristianityUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on faith at a university lecture, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of questioning one's beliefs.
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.
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
Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.
Bertrand RussellRead
I was born in South Africa during apartheid, a system of laws that made it illegal for people to mix in South Africa. And this was obviously awkward because I grew up in a mixed family. My mother's a black woman, South African Xhosa woman... and my father's Swiss, from Switzerland.
Trevor NoahRead
On occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal.
Jeffrey R. HollandRead
Men and women are sacrificed to the idols of profit and consumption: it is the 'culture of waste.' If a computer breaks it is a tragedy, but poverty, the needs and dramas of so many people end up being considered normal. ... When the stock market drops 10 points in some cities, it constitutes a tragedy. Someone who dies is not news, but lowering income by 10 points is a tragedy! In this way people are thrown aside as if they were trash.
Pope FrancisRead
My own veneration for other faiths is the same as that for my own faith; therefore no thought of conversion is possible
Mahatma GandhiRead
I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.
F. Scott FitzgeraldRead