Quotable: Hume, on ancient morality

“You seem to take pleasure in this topic: and are indeed the only man I ever knew, who was well acquainted with the ancients, and did not extremely admire them. But instead of attacking their philosophy, their eloquence, or poetry, the usual subjects of controversy between us, you now seem to impeach their morals, and accuse them of ignorance in a science, which is the only one, in my opinion, in which they are not surpassed by the moderns.”

David Hume, Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals, 330.

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