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
It is seldom, that liberty of any kind is lost all at once. Slavery has so frightful an aspect to men accustomed to freedom, that it must steal upon them by degrees, and must disguise itself in a thousand shapes, in order to be received.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Loss of freedom typically occurs gradually and subtly, rather than suddenly.
David Hume highlights the insidious nature of losing liberty, suggesting that it does not vanish overnight but rather encroaches slowly and often in disguised forms. This gradual loss is more acceptable to those who are used to freedom, making them unaware of its erosion until it is too late.
Themes
LibertyFreedomSlaveryLossGradualSocietyAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on political philosophy.
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.
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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.
David HumeRead
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