Generally Speaking The Errors In Religion

From A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40), Book I, Part IV, Section VII, "Conclusion of This Book." Hume makes the remark as he wraps up the first book's sustained examination of skepticism, having shown that metaphysical speculation can lead to absurdity. His point is that philosophical errors, however mistaken, remain confined to cold abstract reasoning and rarely cause harm, whereas religious errors carry the potential for persecution and violence — a pointed observation from a thinker whose own skeptical essays were suppressed or published anonymously during his lifetime to avoid controversy.