Q0337

“Custom, then, is the great guide of human life.” — David Hume (Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding V.1)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding V.1. Theme: society.

English

Custom, then, is the great guide of human life.
Thinker David Hume
School Scottish Enlightenment
Source Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding V.1
Theme Society
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding V.1 and files it under Scottish Enlightenment. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About David Hume

David Hume (1711–1776) was the Scottish Enlightenment’s greatest empiricist and skeptical naturalist, author of the Treatise of Human Nature and later Enquiries. Largely denied academic chairs over religious suspicion, he served as librarian and diplomat and wrote a bestselling History of England.

How to read this passage

Social philosophy asks how individuals and collectives constitute each other, and what justice requires of shared life. This passage enters that discussion through society, experience, life.

Concepts in this quote

Society
Society is the web of institutions, customs, and mutual expectations in which individual freedom takes shape.
Experience
Experience is the lived encounter with world and self—foundation or limit for knowledge, art, and ethics.
Life
Philosophy quotes about life ask what makes a life good, meaningful, or worth examining—questions that drive ethics, religion, and everyday decision.

How to cite this quotation

APA: David Hume. (n.d.). Custom, then, is the great guide of human life. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0337

MLA: David Hume. “Custom, then, is the great guide of human….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0337.

Chicago: David Hume. “Custom, then, is the great guide of human….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0337.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “Custom, then, is the great guide of human…”?

The passage is attributed to David Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding V.1. The archive attributes this English wording to Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding V.1 and files it under Scottish Enlightenment. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does David Hume mean by society?

Social philosophy asks how individuals and collectives constitute each other, and what justice requires of shared life. This passage enters that discussion through society, experience, life.

Same thinker

More from David Hume

  1. 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.
  2. A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.
  3. For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other.
  4. Reason is wholly inactive, and can never be the source of so active a principle as conscience, or a sense of morals.
  5. Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.

All quotations by David Hume

Same theme

More on society

  1. Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
  2. Habit is the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent.
  3. Study problems, import theories, reorganize the national heritage, and recreate civilization.
  4. When the granaries are full, people know ritual and restraint; when food and clothing are sufficient, they know honor and shame.
  5. Toward the past history of one’s own country, one should hold a warmth of feeling and a sense of respect.

Browse the society theme