"Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them"
- David Hume
About this Quote
This quote by David Hume suggests that reason needs to be secondary to feeling and passion. Reason must not be utilized to bypass or manage emotion, however rather to serve and follow it. Hume is recommending that reason must be used to understand and analyze emotion, instead of to control it. He is emphasizing the significance of feeling in decision-making and the requirement to take feeling into account when making choices. Hume is suggesting that reason should be used to comprehend and analyze emotion, instead of to control it. He is highlighting the importance of feeling in decision-making and the need to take emotion into account when making choices. He is also recommending that reason should be utilized to inform and direct feeling, rather than to suppress it. Hume's quote is a tip that feeling and enthusiasm should be appreciated and considered when making decisions, and that factor must be used to understand and interpret feeling, instead of to manage it.
"The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it"