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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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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
States
According
Every
Relation
Private
Remained
Opinion
Governed
Law
Obey
State
Protected
Free
Relations
Individual
Foreign

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The first cause of Absurd conclusions I ascribe to the want of Method.
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To conclude, The Light of humane minds is Perspicuous Words, but by exact definitions first snuffed, and purged from ambiguity Reason is the pace Encrease of Science, the way and the Benefit of man-kind, the end.
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I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.
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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.
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In a Democracy, look how many Demagogs that is how many powerful Orators there are with the people.
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Words are the counters of wise men, but the money of fools.
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It's not the pace of life I mind. It's the sudden stop at the end.
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If any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies.
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And Beasts that have Deliberation , must necessarily also have Will .
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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.
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Scientia potentia est, sed parva quia scientia egregia rara est, nec proinde apparens nisi paucissimis, et in paucis rebus. Scientiae enim ea natura est, ut esse intelligi non possit, nisi ab illis qui sunt scientia praediti.
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Setting themselves against reason, as often as reason is against them.
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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?
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The first author of speech was God himself, that instructed Adam how to name such creatures as He presented to his sight.
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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.
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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.
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A Law of Nature, (Lex Naturalis) is a Precept, or general Rule, found out by Reason, by which a man is forbidden to do, that, which is destructive of his life, or taketh away the means of preserving the same and to omit, that, by which he thinketh it may be best preserved.
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Wisdom, properly so called, is nothing else but this: the perfect knowledge of the truth in all matters whatsoever.
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A democracy is no more than an aristocracy of orators. The people are so readily moved by demagogues that control must be exercised by the government over speech and press.
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Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.
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