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2 ideas
3921 | The safety of the people is the supreme law [Hume] |
Full Idea: The safety of the people is the supreme law. | |
From: David Hume (Enquiry concerning Principles of Morals [1751], III.II.157) | |
A reaction: No political system ever seems able to disagree with this. |
3927 | Society prefers helpful lies to harmful truth [Hume] |
Full Idea: Truths which are pernicious to society, if any such there be, will yield to errors which are salutary and advantageous. | |
From: David Hume (Enquiry concerning Principles of Morals [1751], IX.II.228) | |
A reaction: Hume probably meant religion. Two centuries later we have a greater appetite for uncomfortable truth. |