David Hume Quotes

There is only one thing about which I am certain, and that is that there is very little about which one can be certain.

Certainty is no guarantor of correctness.

I believe it is impossible to be sure of anything.

We'd all like to be certain of what we know, but I think the most important question is to ask yourself do you really know what you know?

Except in pure mathematics, nothing is known for certain (although much is certainly false).

Realism is punishing. Probabilistic skepticism is worse.

... I distrust manifest knowledge.

All that belongs to human understanding, in this deep ignorance and obscurity, is to be sceptical, or at least cautious, and not to admit of any hypothesis whatever, much less of any which is supported by no appearance of probability.

Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it?

Il n'est pas certain que tout soit incertain. (Translation: It is not certain that everything is uncertain.)

Even though there are no ways of knowing for sure, there are ways of knowing for pretty sure.

Truth is something that we can attempt to doubt, and then perhaps, after much exertion, discover that part of the doubt is not justified.

I do not know whether any of this is true. I am certain that the scientific community does not know that it is false.

He who doubts, knows - knows as much as can be known.

I have throughout been curious about how much we can be said to know and with what degree of certainty or doubtfulness.

Even the stoics agree that certainty is very hard to come at; that our assent is worth little, for where is infallibility to be found?

If you tried to doubt everything you would not get as far as doubting anything. The game of doubting itself presupposes certainty.

We must not let go manifest truths because we cannot answer all questions about them.

Maybe I don't believe things myself, as well. Truth is such a transient thing.

Inquiry is fatal to certainty.

I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief.

No human being will ever know the Truth, for even if they happen to say it by chance, they would not even known they had done so.

My personal philosophy is, you can be sure of nothing.

If all you have is faith, then you never actually know anything.

I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of.