Statue of David Hume (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“A purpose, an intention, a design, strikes everywhere even the careless, the most stupid thinker.” — David Hume
David Hume (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
(A strangely constructed sentence, by today’s standards, in my opinion. I take this to mean that there is always a reason for all of man’s actions. Closer to today’s English than Shakespearean English, but not as plain as the nose on my face.
I like that the Cryptoquote brings me in contact with writers who I haven’t read before. I especially like these philosophers, like David Hume. When I read about their views – which may not be currently in vogue – I feel a little less like an outsider. There is so much pressure these days to think, to act, to speak . . . to believe a certain way, that I find very unnerving. Right, left. Democrat, Republican. Conservative, liberal. So much polarity. So many labels. All designed to keep us at each others throats, instead of working together for a common good. I reject these notions. They are counter-productive to . . . success. I might have said “progress”, but then a number of you would have said: Humph, he’s one of them “progressives”! And, that’s just one aspect of how we’re supposed to think. Political correctness? Oh boy. Do you remember the semi-hackneyed declaration: “I don’t agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”? What has happened to this way of thinking? Even if this sounds a little corny, I still believe that this is how we are meant to interact. This is how we are really supposed to think. If we are going to “correct” anymore words, why don’t we start with . . . conformity. To me, that is an ugly word, that has no place in modern society. That should be the real/new “C-Word”. Be well . . . be different and do good, friends.) — YUR
PS. The above referenced declaration is attributed to Voltaire. For those of you who were wondering. — YUR
Related articles
Unclerave's Wordy Weblog 
Uncle Rave, the construction sounds strange because the original did not include the extraneous word “even.” See:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4583/4583-h/4583-h.htm
Scroll down to Part 12, second paragraph.
The sentiment is that even the dullest person will perceive a design or pattern in nature, a proof of god’s existence known as the “argument from design.” I think Hume was treating it somewhat dismissively, putting it in the mouth of Philo, the skeptic in the group. However, the argument from design encourages people to observe nature and think about the world, and this is an improvement over swallowing dogma whole.
Burt,
You always come through, with answers to my questions. Just goes to show how intelligent my readers are. I went to the site you provided. (for some reason it took 3 attempts before it took me to the actual page with the quote. Maybe I was impatient. Maybe I used too much backspin on my first two attempts?) Without getting there – as almost was the case – I would have argued that the word “everywhere” was the extraneous word, because it makes more sense without it, and with “even”. But, since I did – finally – get to the page that contained the quote, I noticed that it’s not the word “everywhere”, but two words “every where”. Is this a case of not wanting to use a compound word, or was the word “every” a way of expressing the word ALL, as in *A purpose strikes all where (even) the most careless . . .”?
The other thing I noticed was the cryptoquote is incomplete, as it ends with “; and no man can be so hardened in absurd systems, as at all times to reject it.”
And of course, even the entire quote suffers from being way out of context. I like Hume, but I’m just not a big fan of this quote.
Thanks again, bud! — YUR