David Hume

1711–1776 · Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian & essayist

David Hume (1711–1776) was a central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, best known for his empiricism and skepticism in works like A Treatise of Human Nature and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. In his essay “Of the Standard of Taste” he argued that beauty is not an objective property of things but a sentiment in the mind of the beholder — a founding statement of modern aesthetic subjectivism.

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3 quotes we’ve traced to David Hume

“A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence”

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“Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man”

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“Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them”

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