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
Scholastic learning and polemical divinity retarded the growth of all true knowledge.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Hume suggests that formal education and religious debate hinder genuine understanding and intellectual progress.
In this quote, David Hume critiques the impact of scholastic teachings and theological arguments on the pursuit of true knowledge. He implies that the structure and limitations imposed by traditional education and religious dogma obstruct the development of critical thinking and the exploration of real understanding, which are essential for intellectual growth and enlightenment.
Themes
KnowledgeEducationPhilosophyUnderstandingTruth
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on the philosophy of education, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of critical thinking over rote learning.
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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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.
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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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