The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny; flattery to treachery; standing armies to arbitrary government; and the glory of God to the temporal interest of the clergy.

Quote by David Hume

Topics: Government Quotes

Custom is the great guide to human life.

Custom is the great guide to human life.

Every wise, just, and mild government, by rendering the condition of its subjects easy and...

Every wise, just, and mild government, by rendering the condition of its subjects easy and...

The sweetest and most inoffensive path of life leads through the avenues of science and...

The sweetest and most inoffensive path of life leads through the avenues of science and...

It's when we start working together that the real healing takes place... it's when we...

It's when we start working together that the real healing takes place... it's when we...

A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence

A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence

A purpose, an intention, a design, strikes everywhere even the careless, the most stupid thinker.

A purpose, an intention, a design, strikes everywhere even the careless, the most stupid thinker.

And what is the greatest number? Number one.

And what is the greatest number? Number one.

There is not to be found, in all history, any miracle attested by a sufficient...

There is not to be found, in all history, any miracle attested by a sufficient...

Beauty in things lies in the mind which contemplates them.

Beauty in things lies in the mind which contemplates them.

A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from...

A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from...

To hate, to love, to think, to feel, to see; all this is nothing but...

To hate, to love, to think, to feel, to see; all this is nothing but...

It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.

It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.

Avarice, the spur of industry

Avarice, the spur of industry

Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the...

Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the...

There is no They, Only Us.

There is no They, Only Us.

Accuracy is, in every case, advantageous to beauty, and just reasoning to delicate sentiment. In...

Accuracy is, in every case, advantageous to beauty, and just reasoning to delicate sentiment. In...

What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call 'thought'.

What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call 'thought'.

The law always limits every power it gives.

The law always limits every power it gives.

Belief is nothing but a more vivid, lively, forcible, firm, steady conception of an object,...

Belief is nothing but a more vivid, lively, forcible, firm, steady conception of an object,...

Scholastic learning and polemical divinity retarded the growth of all true knowledge.

Scholastic learning and polemical divinity retarded the growth of all true knowledge.