سلام به دوستان زبانشناس.
در این تاپیک قصد دارم گفته هایی را از فیلسوف انگلیسی سده هجدهم، دیوید هیوم به اشتراک بذارم. دیوید هیوم یکی از مشهورترین فیلسوفان تاریخ به شمار میاد و شخصیتی بسیار دوست داشتنی هم داشت. هیوم انسانهای بسیاری را از خواب جزم اندیشی (به قول کانت) بیدار کرد و بنظرم کتاب “گفت و گوها درباره دین طبیعی” (به انگلیسی: Dialogues concerning natural religion) او شاهکاری به تمام معناست.
گفتنی است که در انتخاب نقل قولها از سایت Goodreads کمک گرفته ام. امیدوارم شما هم از خواندن آنها لذت ببرید. 
Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.
Reading and sauntering and lounging and dosing, which I call thinking, is my supreme Happiness.
Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.
But the life of a man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.
The truth springs from arguments amongst friends.
When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities.
It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless appetite for applause.
A wise man apportions his beliefs to the evidence.
Heaven and Hell suppose two distinct species of men,
the Good and the Bad.
But the greatest part of mankind float between vice and virtue.
The whole earth, believe me, Philo, is cursed and polluted. A perpetual war goes on among all living creatures. Need, hunger, and deprivation stimulate the strong and courageous; fear, anxiety and terror agitate the weak and infirm. The first entrance into life brings distress to the new-born infant and to its wretched mother, weakness, impotence and distress accompany each stage of that life: and eventually it reaches its end in agony and horror.
If an alien suddenly arrived in this world, I would show him, as a specimen of its ills, a hospital full of diseases, a prison crowded with criminals and debtors, a field of battle with corpses all over it, a fleet of ships sinking in the ocean, a nation suffering under tyranny, famine, or plague. To turn the cheerful side of life to him and give him a notion of its pleasures, where should I take him? to a ball, to an opera, to court? He might reasonably think that I was only showing him other kinds of distress and sorrow.
If common superstition is so good for society, said Philo, then how does it happen that history is so full of accounts of its pernicious effects on public affairs? Factions, civil wars, persecutions, subversions of government, oppression, slavery—these are the dismal consequences which always accompany a prevalence of superstition in the minds of men. Whenever an historical narrative mentions the religious spirit, we are sure to find later in the story some details of the miseries that come with it. No period of time can be happier or more prosperous than those in which the religious spirit is never honoured or heard of.
If the whole of natural theology, as some people seem to maintain, boils down to one simple, though somewhat ambiguous or at least undefined proposition:
The cause or causes of order in the universe probably bear some remote analogy to human intelligence,
if this proposition can’t be extended, varied, or explained in more detail; if it yields no inference that affects human life or can be the source of any action or forbearance from acting; and if the analogy, imperfect as it is, extends only to human intelligence, and can’t plausibly be transferred to the other qualities of the mind—if all this really is the case, what can the most curious, thoughtful, and religious man do except give a plain, philosophical assent to the proposition as often as it comes up.Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.
Epicurus’s old questions are still unanswered: Is he (God) willing to prevent evil, but not able? then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? then where does evil come from?
To philosopher and historian the madness and imbecile wickedness of mankind ought to appear ordinary events.
We choose our favourite author as we do our friend, from a conformity of humour and disposition. Mirth or passion, sentiment or reflection; whichever of these most predominates in our temper, it gives us a peculiar sympathy with the writer who resembles us.
Custom, then, is the great guide of human life. It is that principle alone which renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past. Without the influence of custom, we should be entirely ignorant of every matter of fact beyond what is immediately present to the memory and senses. We should never know how to adjust means to ends, or to employ our natural powers in the production of any effect.
Most people are naturally apt to be positive and dogmatic in their opinions; they see only one side of an issue, have no idea of any arguments going the other way, and recklessly commit themselves to the principles that seem to them right, with no tolerance for those who hold opposing views. Pausing to reflect, or balancing arguments pro and con, only serves to get them muddled, to damp down their emotions, and to delay their actions.
They are very uncomfortable in this state, and are thus impatient to escape from it; and they think they can keep away from it—the further the better—by the violence of their assertions and the obstinacy of their beliefs. But if these dogmatic reasoners became aware of how frail the human understanding is, even at its best and most cautious, this awareness would naturally lead to their being less dogmatic and outspoken, less sure of themselves and less prejudiced against antagonists.When I consider the subject with the utmost impartiality, and take the most comprehensive view of it, I find myself more inclined to think, that evil predominates in the world, and am apt to regard human life as a scene of misery, according to the sentiments of the greatest sages as well as of the generality of mankind, from the beginning of the world to his day.
