"But were this world ever so perfect a production, it must still remain uncertain, whether all the excellencies of the work can justly be ascribed to the workman. If we survey a ship, what an exalted idea must we form of the ingenuity of the carpenter who framed so complicated, useful, and beautiful a machine? And what surprise must we feel, when we find him a stupid mechanic, who imitated others, and copied an art, which, through a long succession of ages, after multiplied trials, mistakes, corrections, deliberations, and controversies, had been gradually improving? Many worlds might have been botched and bungled, throughout an eternity, ere this system was struck out; much labour lost; many fruitless trials made; and a slow, but continued improvement carried on during infinite ages in the art of world-making. In such subjects, who can determine, where the truth; nay, who can conjecture where the probability, lies; amidst a great number of hypotheses which may be proposed, and a still greater number which may be imagined?"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Relgions (1779) pp. 106-107
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Multiverse
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Multiverse
21 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Multiverse →
Related Quotes
"It is undeniable that today the verifiability of the multiverse appears extremely arduous."
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has, in what we laughingly call the past, had a great deal to say on the subject…"
"That what is outside is infinite, leads people to suppose that body also is infinite, and that there is an infinite n…"
"For if they imagine infinite spaces of time before the world, during which God could not have been idle, in like mann…"
"Once you take seriously that all possible universes can (or do) exist then a slippery slope opens up before you. It h…"
"And again, who will be frightened by the objections of the stoics, when they ask how will a single Fate and a single …"
"A challenge for string theorists is to determine how many possible low energy worlds might be predicted by the theory…"
"Perhaps existence isn't something that gets bestowed from the outside, by having "fire breathed" into a potentiality …"
"Anaximander gave up the idea that water or any other known substance might be the first principle, and held that this…"
"... I wouldn't say, per se, that I am comfortable with the multiverse. What I would say is that I think it's a that w…"