"There is no such thing as freedom of choice unless there is freedom to refuse."
"If we confine ourselves to a general and distant reflection on the ills of human life, that can have no effect to prepare us for them. If by close and intense meditation we render them present and intimate to us, that is the true secret for poisoning all our pleasures, and rendering us perpetually miserable."
10 likes
Source: David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.683, Delphi Classics
About the author
Same author
More quotes by David Hume
"Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few."
"Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them."
"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."
"A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence."
"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."