“ A man of mild manners can form no idea of inveterate revenge or cruelty; nor can a selfish heart easily conceive the heights of friendship and generosity. ”
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748). copy citation
| Author | David Hume |
|---|---|
| Source | An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding |
| Topic | friendship cruelty |
| Date | 1748 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/9662/9662-h/9662-h.htm |
Context
“And though there are few or no instances of a like deficiency in the mind, where a person has never felt or is wholly incapable of a sentiment or passion that belongs to his species; yet we find the same observation to take place in a less degree. A man of mild manners can form no idea of inveterate revenge or cruelty; nor can a selfish heart easily conceive the heights of friendship and generosity. It is readily allowed, that other beings may possess many senses of which we can have no conception; because the ideas of them have never been introduced to us in the only manner by which an idea can have access to the mind, to wit, by the actual feeling and sensation.”
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