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The end of knowledge is power ... the scope of all speculation is the performing of some action or thing to be done.

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
Action
Ends
Power
Done
Speculation
Thing
Scope
Performing
Knowledge
Science

More quotes by Thomas Hobbes

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Words are the counters of wise men, but the money of fools.
Thomas Hobbes
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What reason is there that he which laboreth much, and, sparing the fruits of his labor, consumeth little, should be more charged than he that, living idly, getteth little and spendeth all he gets, seeing the one hath no more protection from the commonwealth than the other?
Thomas Hobbes
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The law is more easily understood by few than many words. For all words are subject to ambiguity, and therefore multiplication of words in the body of the law is multiplication of ambiguity. Besides, it seems to imply (by too much diligence) that whosoever can evade the words is without the compass of the law.
Thomas Hobbes
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Religions are like pills, which must be swallowed whole without chewing.
Thomas Hobbes
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True and false are attributes of speech not of things. And where speech is not, there is neither truth nor falsehood. Error theremay be, as when we expect that which shall not be or suspect what has not been: but in neither case can a man be charged with untruth.
Thomas Hobbes
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Intemperance is naturally punished with diseases rashness, with mischance injustice with violence of enemies pride, with ruin cowardice, with oppression and rebellion, with slaughter.
Thomas Hobbes
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For it is not the shape, but their use, that makes them angels.
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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Baptism is the sacrament of allegiance of them that are to be received into the Kingdom of God, that is to say, into Eternal life, that is to say, to Remission of Sin. For as Eternal life was lost by the committing, so it is recovered by the remitting of men's sins.
Thomas Hobbes
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Curiosity is the lust of the mind.
Thomas Hobbes
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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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Such truth, as opposeth no man's profit, nor pleasure, is to all men welcome.
Thomas Hobbes
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Obligation is thraldom, and thraldom is hateful.
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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It's not the pace of life I mind. It's the sudden stop at the end.
Thomas Hobbes
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How could a state be governed, or protected in its foreign relations if every individual remained free to obey or not to obey the law according to his private opinion.
Thomas Hobbes
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I think, therefore matter is capable of thinking.
Thomas Hobbes
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During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war and such a war, as if of every man, against every man.
Thomas Hobbes
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The right of nature... is the liberty each man hath to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature that is to say, of his own life.
Thomas Hobbes
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A man cannot lay down the right of resisting them that assault him by force, to take away his life.
Thomas Hobbes