James A. Harris

“Pope showed that a writer, if he were sufficiently good, and had sufficient business acumen, did not need a patron or employer. This new model of authorship made some uncomfortable. Writing for money sounded mercenary and generally unrespectable. The old culture of aristocratic patronage might, in a way, have been a surer guarantee of literary integrity and independence.69 If Hume had any worries on this score, he never confessed them. The tone of ‘My Own Life’ was one of unabashed pride in his own financial success. Hume positively trumpeted the fact that the money he received from his booksellers ‘much exceeded any thing formerly known in England’, and that it made him not just independent but also opulent.70 Another role model may have been Voltaire, who, while not averse to the patronage of the great, was a very capable marketer of his own works. The young Hume would have”
― James A. Harris, Hume: An Intellectual Biography

“[T]he minds of men are mirrors to one another’ (T 365), Hume remarked, and just as mirrors are not in control of the reflections they give, so also our feelings, and beliefs, cannot help but be impinged upon by the feelings and beliefs of those around us.”
― James A. Harris, Hume: A Very Short Introduction