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The praise of ancient authors proceeds not from the reverence of the dead, but from the competition and mutual envy of the living.

Thomas Hobbes

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Thomas Hobbes
Age: 91 †
Born: 1588
Born: April 5
Died: 1679
Died: December 4
Economist
Historian
Mathematician
Philosopher
Political Scientist
Politician
Translator
Westport
Wiltshire
Hobbes
Thomas Hobbsted
Thomas Hobbes of Malflutry
Dead
Proceeds
Living
Authors
Reverence
Mutual
Envy
Competition
Ancient
Praise

More quotes by Thomas Hobbes

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When two, or more men, know of one and the same fact, they are said to be CONSCIOUS of it one to another which is as much as to know it together.
Thomas Hobbes
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Nature itself cannot err
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Let a man (as most men do) rate themselves as the highest Value they can yet their true Value is no more than it is esteemed by others.
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This I know God cannot sin, because his doing a thing makes it just, and consequently, no sin.... And therefore it is blasphemy to say, God can sin but to say, that God can so order the world, as a sin may be necessarily caused thereby in a man, I do not see how it is any dishonor to him.
Thomas Hobbes
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The law is the public conscience.
Thomas Hobbes
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In sum, all actions and habits are to be esteemed good or evil by their causes and usefulness in reference to the commonwealth, and not by their mediocrity, nor by their being commended. For several men praise several customs, and, contrarily, what one calls vice, another calls virtue, as their present affections lead them.
Thomas Hobbes
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That wee have of Geometry, which is the mother of all Naturall Science, wee are not indebted for it to the Schools.
Thomas Hobbes
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But if one Subject giveth Counsell to another, to do anything contrary to the Lawes, whether that Counsell proceed from evil intention, or from ignorance onely, it is punishable by the Common-wealth because igorance of the Law, is no good excuse, where every man is bound to take notice of the Lawes to which he is subject.
Thomas Hobbes
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The Enemy has been here in the night of our natural ignorance, and sown the tares of spiritual errors.
Thomas Hobbes
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And therefore in geometry (which is the only science that it hath pleased God hitherto to bestow on mankind), men begin at settling the significations of their words which settling of significations, they call definitions, and place them in the beginning of their reckoning.
Thomas Hobbes
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I mean by the universe, the aggregate of all things that have being in themselves and so do all men else. And because God has a being, it follows that he is either the whole universe, or part of it. Nor does his Lordship go about to disprove it, but only seems to wonder at it.
Thomas Hobbes
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Because silver and gold have their value from the matter itself, they have first this privilege, that the value of them cannot be altered by the power of one, nor of a few commonwealths, as being a common measure of the commodities of all places. But base money may easily be enhanced or abased.
Thomas Hobbes
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If nobody makes you do it, it counts as fun.
Thomas Hobbes
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The first cause of Absurd conclusions I ascribe to the want of Method.
Thomas Hobbes
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Whatsoever is the object of any man's Appetite or Desire that is it which he for his part calleth Good: and the object of his Hate and Aversion, evil.
Thomas Hobbes
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As in the presence of the Master, the Servants are equall, and without any honour at all So are the Subjects, in the presence of the Soveraign. And though they shine some more, some lesse, when they are out of his sight yet in his presence, they shine no more than the Starres in presence of the Sun.
Thomas Hobbes
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For naturall Bloud is in like manner made of the fruits of the Earth and circulating, nourisheth by the way, every Member of the Body of Man.
Thomas Hobbes
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All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called 'Facts'. They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.
Thomas Hobbes
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If any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies.
Thomas Hobbes
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Passions unguided are for the most part mere madness.
Thomas Hobbes