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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.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Let A Man (as

Thomas Hobbes
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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.

Understanding the Quote: "let a man (as most men do) rate themselves as the highest..."

This quote by Thomas Hobbes reflects deeply on the theme of men. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Men, Rate, True Value, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Thomas Hobbes interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes is celebrated for insightful thoughts on men and rate. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Men
Rate
True Value
More From Thomas Hobbes
By How Much One Man Has More Experience Of Things Past, Than Another, By So Much Also He Is More Prudent, And His Expectations The Seldomer Fail Him.
Past
Men
Expectations
True And False Are Attributes Of Speech, Not Of Things. And Where Speech Is Not, There Is Neither Truth Nor Falsehood.
Truth
True And False
Speech
From What Cause The Rite Of Baptism First Proceeded Is Not Expressed Formally In The Scripture, But It May Be Probably Thought To Be An Imitation Of The Law Of Moses Concerning Leprosy, Wherein The Leprous Man Was Commanded To Be Kept Out Of The Camp Of Israel For A Certain Time, After Which Time Being Judged By The Priest To Be Clean, He Was Admitted Into The Camp After A Solemn Washing. And This May Therefore Be A Type Of The Washing In Baptism, Wherein Such Men As Are Cleansed Of The Leprosy Of Sin By Faith, Are Received Into The Church With The Solemnity Of Baptism.
Men
Israel
Law
No Man Is Bound By The Words Themselves, Either To Kill Himselfe, Or Any Other Man.
Men
Bounds
The First And Fundamental Law Of Nature, Which Is, To Seek Peace And Follow It.
Law
Fundamentals
Firsts
For If I Should Not Believe All That Is Written By Historians, Of The Glorious Acts Of Alexander, Or Caesar; I Do Not Think The Ghost Of Alexander, Or Caesar, Had Any Just Cause To Be Offended; Or Any Body Else, But The Historian. If Livy Say The Gods Made Once A Cow Speak, And We Believe It Not; We Distrust Not God Therein, But Livy. So That It Is Evident, That Whatsoever We Believe, Upon No Other Reason, Then What Is Drawn From Authority Of Men Only, And Their Writings; Whether They Be Sent From God Or Not, Is Faith In Men Only.
Faith
Believe
Writing
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.
Ignorance
Men
Law
The Object Of Man's Desire Is Not To Enjoy Once Only, And For One Instant Of Time; But To Assure For Ever, The Way Of His Future Desires.
Men
Desire
Way
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.
Mean
Men
Law
Power As Is Really Divided, And As Dangerously To All Purposes, By Sharing With Another An Indirect Power, As A Direct One.
Purpose
Indirect
Divided
No Arts, No Letters - No Society.
Art
Letters
A Private Man Has Always The Liberty (because Thought Is Free) To Believe Or Not Believe In His Heart Those Acts That Have Been Given Out For Miracles, According As He Shall See What Benefits Can Accrue By Men's Belief, To Those That Pretend, Or Countenance Them, And Thereby Conjecture Whether They Be Miracles Or Lies.
Lying
Believe
Heart
For Seeing Life Is But A Motion Of Limbs... Why May We Not Say, That All Automata (engines That Move Themselves By Springs And Wheels As Doth A Watch) Have An Artificial Life?
Spring
Moving
Watches
We Are Not To Renounce Our Senses And Experience, Nor (that Which Is The Undoubted Word Of God) Our Natural Reason. For They Are The Talents Which He Hath Put Into Our Hands To Negotiate, Till The Coming Again Of Our Blessed Savior, And Therefore Not To Be Folded Up In The Napkin Of An Implicate Faith, But Employed In The Purchase Of Justice, Peace, And True Religion. For Though There Be Many Things In God's Word Above Reason--that Is To Say, Which Cannot By Natural Reason Be Either Demonstrated Or Confuted--yet There Is Nothing Contrary To It.
Blessed
Hands
Justice
And Where Men Build On False Grounds, The More They Build, The Greater Is The Ruine
Men
Greater
The Enemy Has Been Here In The Night Of Our Natural Ignorance, And Sown The Tares Of Spiritual Errors.
Spiritual
Ignorance
Night
If I Had Read As Much As Other Men I Would Have Known No More Than They.
Men
Library
Known
I Think, Therefore Matter Is Capable Of Thinking.
Thinking
Matter
Capable
The Cause Of Sense, Is The External Body, Or Object, Which Presseth The Organ Proper To Each Sense, Either Immediately, As In Thetaste And Touch; Or Mediately, As In Seeing, Hearing, And Smelling: Which Pressure, By The Mediation Of Nerves, And Other Strings, And Membranes Of The Body, Continued Inwards To The Brain, And Heart, Causeth There A Resistance, Or Counter- Pressure, Or Endeavor Of The Heart, To Deliver It Self: Which Endeavor Because Outward, Seemeth To Be Some Matter Without.
Nature
Heart
Self
The Value Of All Things Contracted For, Is Measured By The Appetite Of The Contractors, And Therefore The Just Value Is That Which They Be Contented To Give.
Giving
Appetite
Contractor
The "value" Or "worth" Of A Man Is, As Of All Other Things, His Price; That Is To Say, So Much As Would Be Given For The Use Of His Power.
Work
Men
Would Be
Intemperance Is Naturally Punished With Diseases; Rashness, With Mischance; Injustice; With Violence Of Enemies; Pride, With Ruin; Cowardice, With Oppression; And Rebellion, With Slaughter.
Pride
Political
Enemy
And As To The Faculties Of The Mind, Setting Aside The Arts Grounded Upon Words, And Especially That Skill Of Proceeding Upon Generall, And Infallible Rules, Called Science; Which Very Few Have, And But In Few Things; As Being Not A Native Faculty, Born Within Us; Nor Attained, (as Prudence,) While We Look After Somewhat Else.
Art
Science
Skills
For After The Subject Is Removed Or The Eye Shut, We Still Retain An Image Of The Things Seen, Though More Obscure Than When We See It...imagination, Therefore, Is Nothing More Than Decaying Sense.
Eye
Imagination
Obscure
From Whence It Happens, That They Which Trust To Books, Do As They That Cast Up Many Little Sums Into A Greater, Without Considering Whether Those Little Sums Were Rightly Cast Up Or Not; And At Last Finding The Error Visible, And Not Mistrusting Their First Grounds, Know Not Which Way To Clear Themselves; But Spend Time In Fluttering Over Their Books, As Birds That Entering By The Chimney, And Finding Themselves Enclosed In A Chamber, Flutter At The False Light Of A Glass Window, For Want Of Wit To Consider Which Way They Came In.
Book
Errors
Glasses
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.
Men
Rate
True Value
Nature Hath Made Men So Equal In The Faculties Of Body And Mind, As That Though There Be Found One Man Sometimes Manifestly Stronger In Body, Or Of Quicker Mind Than Another, Yet When All Is Reckoned Together, The Difference Between Man And Man Is Not So Considerable As That One Man Can Thereupon Claim To Himself Any Benefit To Which Another May Not Pretend As Well As He.
Men
Differences
Mind
There Is No Action Of Man In This Life That Is Not The Beginning Of So Long A Chain Of Consequences As No Human Providence Is High Enough To Give A Man A Prospect In The End. And In This Chain, There Are Linked Together Both Pleasing And Unpleasing Events In Such Manner As He That Will Do Anything For His Pleasure Must Engage Himself To Suffer All The Pains Annexed To It.
Pain
Men
Long
So That In The Nature Of Man, We Find Three Principal Causes Of Quarrel. First, Competition; Secondly, Diffidence; Thirdly, Glory. The First Maketh Men Invade For Gain; The Second, For Safety; And The Third, For Reputation. The First Use Violence, To Make Themselves Masters Of Other Men's Persons, Wives, Children, And Cattle; The Second, To Defend Them; The Third, For Trifles, As A Word, A Smile, A Different Opinion, And Any Other Sign Of Undervalue, Either Direct In Their Persons Or By Reflection In Their Kindred, Their Friends, Their Nation, Their Profession, Or Their Name.
Children
Men
Reflection
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.
Men
Baptism
Kingdoms
Nature (the Art Whereby God Hath Made And Governs The World) Is By The Art Of Man, As In Many Other Things, So In This Also Imitated, That It Can Make An Artificial Animal. For Seeing Life Is But A Motion Of Limbs, The Beginning Whereof Is In Some Principal Part Within; Why May We Not Say, That All Automata (engines That Move Themselves By Springs And Wheels As Doth A Watch) Have An Artificial Life?
Art
Nature
Spring
When The Nature Of The Thing Is Incomprehensible, I Can Acquiesce In The Scripture: But When The Signification Of Words Is Incomprehensible, I Cannot Acquiesce In The Authority Of A Schoolman.
Bible
God
Scripture
To Say That God Is An Incorporeal Substance, Is To Say In Effect There Is No God At All. What Alleges He Against It, But The School-divinity Which I Have Already Answered? Scripture He Can Bring None, Because The Word Incorporeal Is Not Found In Scripture.
Bible
God
School
From Whence It Follows, That Were The Publique And Private Interest Are Most Closely United, There Is The Publique Most Advanced.
Interest
United
A Naturall Foole That Could Never Learn By Heart The Order Of Numerall Words, As One , Two , And Three , May Observe Every Stroak Of The Clock, And Nod To It, Or Say One, One, One; But Can Never Know What Houre It Strikes.
Heart
Order
Two
Because Waking I Often Observe The Absurdity Of Dreams, But Never Dream Of The Absurdities Of My Waking Thoughts, I Am Well Satisfied That Being Awake, I Know I Dream Not; Though When I Dream, I Think Myself Awake.
Dream
Thinking
Waking
Science Is The Knowledge Of Consequences, And Dependence Of One Fact Upon Another: By Which, Out Of That We Can Presently Do, We Know How To Do Something Else When We Will, Or The Like, Another Time
Facts
Know How
Another Time
This Is That Law Of The Gospel; Whatsoever You Require That Others Should Do To You, That Do Ye To Them.
Law
Should
The Scripture Was Written To Shew Unto Men The Kingdom Of God; And To Prepare Their Minds To Become His Obedient Subjects; Leavingthe World, And The Philosophy Thereof, To The Disputation Of Men, For The Exercising Of Their Natural Reason.
Bible
Philosophy
Philosophical
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.
Government
People
Democracy
He That Is To Govern A Whole Nation , Must Read In Himself, Not This, Or That Particular Man; But Mankind; Which Though It Be Hard To Do, Harder Than To Learn Any Language, Or Science; Yet, When I Shall Have Set Down My Own Reading Orderly, And Perspicuously, The Pains Left Another, Will Be Only To Consider, If He Also Find Not The Same In Himself. For This Kind Of Doctrine, Admitteth No Other Demonstration.
Pain
Reading
Men
And Whereas Many Men, By Accident Unevitable, Become Unable To Maintain Themselves By Their Labour; They Ought Not To Be Left To The Charity Of Private Persons; But To Be Provided For, (as Far-forth As The Necessities Of Nature Require,) By The Lawes Of The Common-wealth. For As It Is Unchariablenesse In Any Man, To Neglect The Impotent; So It Is In The Soveraign Of A Common-wealth, To Expose Them To The Hazard Of Such Uncertain Charity.
Men
Hazards
Charity
Nature Itself Cannot Err
Covenants Without Swords Are But Words.
Covenant
Weapons
Sudden Glory Is The Passion Which Maketh Those Grimaces Called Laughter.
Happiness
Laughter
Philosophical
... It Is One Thing To Desire, Another To Be In Capacity Fit For What We Desire.
Desire
Fit
Capacity
Christian Kings May Erre In Deducing A Consequence, But Who Shall Judge?
Christian
Kings
Judging
The Secret Thoughts Of A Man Run Over All Things, Holy, Profane, Clean, Obscene, Grave, And Light, Without Shame Or Blame.
Running
Men
Ideas
By Consequence, Or Train Of Thoughts, I Understand That Succession Of One Thought To Another Which Is Called, To Distinguish It From Discourse In Words, Mental Discourse. When A Man Thinketh On Anything Whatsoever, His Next Thought After Is Not Altogether So Casual As It Seems To Be. Not Every Thought To Every Thought Succeeds Indifferently.
Men
Train Of Thought
Next
Unnecessary Laws Are Not Good Laws, But Traps For Money.
Freedom
Law
Liberty
Setting Themselves Against Reason, As Often As Reason Is Against Them.
Reason
Settings
Setting
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.
Men
Two
Together
And If A Man Consider The Original Of This Great Ecclesiastical Dominion, He Will Easily Perceive, That The Papacy , Is No Other Than The Ghost Of The Deceased Romane Empire , Sitting Crowned Upon The Grave Thereof: For So Did The Papacy Start Up On A Sudden Out Of The Ruines Of That Heathen Power.
Men
Empires
Dominion
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.
Gold
May
Matter
Do Not That To Another, Which Thou Wouldst Not Have Done To Thyself.
Done
Thyself
The Register Of Knowledge Of Fact Is Called History .
Facts
Register
For As To The Strength Of Body, The Weakest Has Strength Enough To Kill The Strongest, Either By Secret Machination Or By Confederacy With Others That Are In The Same Danger With Himself
Secret
Body
Enough
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.
Hate
Men
Evil
Can It Then Be Doubted, But That God, Who Is Infinitely Fine Spirit, And Withal Intelligent, Can Make And Change All Species And Kind Of Body As He Pleaseth? But I Dare Not Say, That This Is The Way By Which God Almighty Worketh, Because It Is Past My Apprehension: Yet It Serves Very Well To Demonstrate, That The Omnipotence Of God Implieth No Contradiction.
God
Intelligent
Past
Men Looke Not At The Greatnesse Of The Evill Past, But The Greatnesse Of The Good To Follow.
Past
Men
Whatsoever Therefore Is Consequent To A Time Of War, Where Every Man Is Enemy To Every Man, The Same Consequent To The Time Wherein Men Live Without Other Security Than What Their Own Strength And Their Own Invention Shall Furnish Them Withal. In Such Condition There Is No Place For Industry... No Knowledge Of The Face Of The Earth; No Account Of Time; No Arts; No Letters; No Society; And Which Is Worst Of All, Continual Fear, And Danger Of Violent Death; And The Life Of Man, Solitary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish, And Short.
Art
War
Men
Such Truth, As Opposeth No Man's Profit, Nor Pleasure, Is To All Men Welcome.
Philosophical
Men
Welcome
There Is No Such Thing As Perpetual Tranquility Of Mind While We Live Here.
Mind
Tranquility
Perpetual
No Man Can Be Judge To His Own Cause.
Men
Judging
Causes
The Disembodied Spirit Is Immortal; There Is Nothing Of It That Can Grow Old Or Die. But The Embodied Spirit Sees Death On The Horizon As Soon As Its Day Dawns.
Dawn
Horizon
Spirit
The First Cause Of Absurd Conclusions I Ascribe To The Want Of Method.
Want
Firsts
Causes
A Covenant Not To Defend Myself From Force By Force Is Always Void. For ... No Man Can Transfer Or Lay Down His Right To Save Himself. For The Right Men Have By Nature To Protect Themselves, When None Else Can Protect Them, Can By No Covenant Be Relinquished. ... [the Right] To Defend Ourselves [is The] Summe Of The Right Of Nature.
Men
Covenant
Void
Love Is A Person's Idea About His/her Needs In Other Person What You Are Attracted To.
Love Is
Ideas
Needs
To Speak Impartially, Both Sayings Are Very True: That Man To Man Is A Kind Of God; And That Man To Man Is An Arrant Wolf. The First Is True, If We Compare Citizens Amongst Themselves; And The Second, If We Compare Cities.
Men
Cities
Citizens
Leisure Can Be One Of The Mothers Of Philosophy.
Mother
Philosophy
Leisure
It's My Turn, To Take A Leap Into The Darkness!
Darkness
Last Words
Leap
Appetite, With An Opinion Of Attaining, Is Called Hope; The Same, Without Such Opinion, Despair.
Inspirational
Despair
Opinion
No Mans Error Becomes His Own Law; Nor Obliges Him To Persist In It.
Mistake
Errors
Law
Good And Evil Are Names That Signify Our Appetites And Aversions, Which In Different Tempers, Customs, And Doctrines Of Men, Are Different: And Diverse Men Differ Not Only In Their Judgment, On The Senses Of What Is Pleasant And Unpleasant To The Taste, Smell, Hearing, Touch, And Sight, But Also Of What Is Conformable, Or Disagreeable To Reason, In The Actions Of The Common Life. Nay, The Same Man, In Diverse Times, Differs From Himself, And One Time Praiseth, That Is, Calleth Good, What Another Time He Dispraiseth, And Calleth Evil.
Men
Sight
Names
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.
Fear
War
Men
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.
Law
Opinion
Individual
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.
God
Mean
Men
If God Bestowed Immortality On Every Man Then When He Made Him, And He Made Many To Whom He Never Purposed To Give His Saving Grace, What Did His Lordship Think That God Gave Any Man Immortality With Purpose Only To Make Him Capable Of Immortal Torments? It Is A Hard Saying, And I Think Cannot Piously Be Believed. I Am Sure It Can Never Be Proved By The Canonical Scripture.
Men
Thinking
Giving
Ignorance Of The Law Is No Good Excuse, Where Every Man Is Bound To Take Notice Of The Laws To Which He Is Subject.
Ignorance
Men
Law
It Is Many Times With A Fraudulent Design That Men Stick Their Corrupt Doctrine With The Cloves Of Other Mens Wit.
Men
Design
Doctrine
It Is Not Easy To Fall Into Any Absurdity, Unless It Be By The Length Of An Account; Wherein He May Perhaps Forget What Went Before. For All Men By Nature Reason Alike, And Well, When They Have Good Principles.
Fall
Men
Principles
For All Uniting Of Strength By Private Men, Is, If For Evil Intent, Unjust; If For Intent Unknown, Dangerous To The Publique, And Unjustly Concealed.
Men
Evil
Uniting
Silence Is Sometimes An Argument Of Consent.
Silence
Atheism
Argument
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.
God
Men
Order
No Discourse Whatsoever, Can End In Absolute Knowledge Of Fact.
Atheism
Facts
Ends
The Original Of All Great And Lasting Societies Consisted Not In The Mutual Good Will Men Had Toward Each Other, But In The Mutual Fear They Had Of Each Other.
Fear
Men
Lasting
The Reputation Of Power Is Power.
Power
Political
Reputation
A Covenant Not To Defend My Selfe From Force, By Force, Is Always Voyd.
Covenant
Force
Force And Fraud Are In War The Two Cardinal Virtues.
War
Two
Hype
Government Is Necessary, Not Because Man Is Naturally Bad... But Because Man Is By Nature More Individualistic Than Social.
Men
Government
Social
I Am About To Take My Last Voyage, A Great Leap In The Dark.
Philosophical
Dark
Journey
Words Are The Counters Of Wise Men, But The Money Of Fools.
Wise
Men
Fool
Another Doctrine Repugnant To Civill Society, Is That Whatsoever A Man Does Against His Conscience, Is Sinne ; And It Dependeth On The Presumption Of Making Himself Judge Of Good And Evill. For A Man's Conscience And His Judgement Are The Same Thing, And As The Judgement, So Also The Conscience May Be Erroneous.
Men
Judging
Leviathan
The Oath Adds Nothing To The Obligation. For A Covenant, If Lawful, Binds In The Sight Of God, Without The Oath, As Much As With It; If Unlawful, Bindeth Not At All, Though It Be Confirmed With An Oath.
Sight
Add
Covenant
He That Has Most Experience [is] So Much More Prudent Than He That Is New, As Not To Be Equalled By Any Advantage Of Natural And Extemporary Wit- Though Many Young Men Think The Contrary.
Men
Thinking
Prudent
It Is Not Wisdom But Authority That Makes A Law
Law
Justice
Authority
As, In Sense, That Which Is Really Within Us, Is (as I Have Said Before) Only Motion, Caused By The Action Of External Objects, But In Appearance; To The Sight, Light And Color; To The Ear, Sound; To The Nostril, Odor, &c.
Light
Sight
Color
Corporations Are May Lesser Commonwealths In The Bowels Of A Greater, Like Worms In The Entrails Of A Natural Man.
Men
Political
May
To Understand This For Sense It Is Not Required That A Man Should Be A Geometrician Or A Logician, But That He Should Be Mad.
Math
Men
Mad
Men Are Not Therefore Put To Death, Or Punished For That Their Theft Proceedeth From Election; But Because It Was Noxious And Contrary To Men's Preservation, And The Punishment Conducing To The Preservation Of The Rest, Inasmuch As To Punish Those That Do Voluntary Hurt, And None Else, Frameth And Maketh Men's Wills Such As Men Would Have Them.
Hurt
Men
Election
A Wise Man Should So Write (though In Words Understood By All Men) That Wise Men Only Should Be Able To Commend Him.
Wise
Wisdom
Writing
Curiosity Draws A Man From Consideration Of The Effect, To Seek The Cause.
Men
Curiosity
Atheism
Felicity Is A Continual Progress Of The Desire From One Object To Another, The Attaining Of The Former Being Still But The Way To The Latter.
Progress
Desire
Way
For It Is Not The Bare Words, But The Scope Of The Writer That Giveth True Light, By Which Any Writing Is To Bee Interpreted; And They That Insist Upon Single Texts, Without Considering The Main Designe, Can Derive No Thing From Them Clearly; But Rather By Casting Atomes Of Scripture, As Dust Before Mens Eyes, Make Everything More Obscure Than It Is; An Ordinary Artifice Of Those Who Seek Not The Truth, But Their Own Advantage.
Eye
Writing
Light
If We Could Suppose A Great Multitude Of Men To Consent To The Observation Of Justice, And Other Laws Of Nature, Without A Common Power To Keep Them All In Awe; We Might As Well Suppose All Mankind To Do The Same; And Then There Neither Would Be Nor Need To Be Any Civil Government Or Commonwealth At All, Because There Would Be Peace Without Subjection.
Men
Law
Justice
The Pacts And Covenants, By Which The Parts Of This Body Politique Were At First Made, Set Together, And United, Resemble That Fiat, Or The Let Us Make Man, Pronounced By God In The Creation.
God
Men
Together
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.
Law
Body
Too Much
Geometry Is The Only Science That It Hath Pleased God Hitherto To Bestow On Mankind.
God
Mathematical
Mankind
War Consisteth Not In Battle Only, Or The Act Of Fighting; But In A Tract Of Time, Wherein The Will To Contend By Battle Is Sufficiently Known.
War
Fighting
Battle
It Is Fairer To Tax People On What They Extract From The Economy, As Roughly Measured By Their Consumption, Than To Tax Them On What They Produce For The Economy, As Roughly Measured By Their Income.
People
Income
Economy
A Man Cannot Lay Down The Right Of Resisting Them That Assault Him By Force, To Take Away His Life.
Life
Philosophical
Men
Leisure Is The Mother Of Philosophy.
Mother
Philosophy
Philosophical
Faith Is A Gift Of God, Which Man Can Neither Give Nor Take Away By Promise Of Rewards Or Menace Of Torture.
Faith
Men
Giving
If This Superstitious Fear Of Spirits Were Taken Away, And With It, Prognostiques From Dreams, False Prophecies, And Many Other Things Depending Thereon, By Which, Crafty Ambitious Persons Abuse The Simple People, Men Would Be Much More Fitted Then They Are For Civill Obedience.
Dream
Taken
Simple
There Is More In Mersenne Than In All The Universities Together.
Math
Together
University
Wisdom, Properly So Called, Is Nothing Else But This: The Perfect Knowledge Of The Truth In All Matters Whatsoever.
Wisdom
Perfect
Matter
The Imagination That Is Raised In Man (or Any Other Creature Imbued With The Faculty Of Imagining) By Words, Or Other Voluntary Signs, Is That We Generally Call Understanding; And Is Common To Man And Beasts.
God
Men
Imagination
For There Are Very Few So Foolish Who Would Not Rather Govern Themselves Than Be Governed By Others.
Liberty
Foolish
[necessity Is] The Sum Of All Things, Which Being Now Existent, Conduce And Concur To The Production Of That Action Hereafter, Whereof If Any One Thing Now Were Wanting, The Effect Could Not Be Produced. This Concourse Of Causes, Whereof Every One Is Determined To Be Such As It Is By A Like Concourse Of Former Causes, May Well Be Called (in Respect They Were All Set And Ordered By The Eternal Causes Of All Things, God Almighty) The Decree Of God.
May
Causality
Causes
When It Happeneth That A Man Signifieth Unto Us Two Contradictory Opinions Whereof The One Is Clearly And Directly Signified, Andthe Other Either Drawn From That By Consequence, Or Not Known To Be Contradictory To It; Then (when He Is Not Present To Explicate Himself Better) We Are To Take The Former Of His Opinions; For That Is Clearly Signified To Be His, And Directly, Whereas The Other Might Proceed From Error In The Deduction, Or Ignorance Of The Repugnancy.
Ignorance
Men
Errors
For If All Things Were Equally In All Men, Nothing Would Be Prized.
Equality
Men
Would Be
Every Man May Think His Own Cause Just Till It Be Heard And Judged.
Men
Thinking
May
Words Are Wise Men's Counters, They Do But Reckon By Them: But They Are The Money Of Fools, That Value Them By The Authority Of An Aristotle, A Cicero, Or A Thomas, Or Any Other Doctor Whatsoever, If But A Man.
Wise
Men
Doctors
If Men Are Naturally In A State Of War, Why Do They Always Carry Arms And Why Do They Have Keys To Lock Their Doors?
War
Men
Keys
I Shall Be Glad Then To Find A Hole To Creep Out Of The World.
Atheism
World
Holes
So Easy Are Men To Be Drawn To Believe Any Thing, From Such Men As Have Gotten Credit With Them; And Can With Gentleness And Dexterity Take Hold Of Their Fear And Ignorance.
Believe
Ignorance
Men
But They That Hold God To Be [an Incorporeal Substance]do Absolutely Make God To Be Nothing At All. But How? Were They Atheists? No. For Though By Ignorance Of The Consequence They Said That Which Was Equivalent To Atheism, Yet In Their Hearts They Thought God A Substanceso That This Atheism By Consequence Is A Very Easy Thing To Be Fallen Into, Even By The Most Godly Men Of The Church.
Atheist
Heart
Ignorance
Fear Of Power Invisible, Feigned By The Mind Or Imagined From Tales Publicly Allowed, Is Religion; Not Allowed, Superstition.
Mind
Atheism
Superstitions
And Seeing Every Man Is Presumed To Do All Things In Order To His Own Benefit, No Man Is A Fit Arbitrator In His Own Cause
Men
Order
Causes
The Characters Of Man's Heart, Blotted And Confounded As They Are With Dissembling, Lying, Counterfeiting, And Erroneous Doctrines, Are Legible Only To Him That Searcheth Hearts.
Lying
Heart
Character
That Wee Have Of Geometry, Which Is The Mother Of All Naturall Science, Wee Are Not Indebted For It To The Schools.
Mother
School
Science
All Generous Minds Have A Horror Of What Are Commonly Called 'facts'. They Are The Brute Beasts Of The Intellectual Domain.
Intellectual
Mind
Facts
All Men, Among Themselves, Are By Nature Equal. The Inequality We Now Discern Hath Its Spring From The Civil Law.
Spring
Men
Law
Leisure Is The Mother Of Philosophy; And Commonwealth, The Mother Of Peace And Leisure.
Mother
Philosophy
Leisure
The Most Part Of Men, Though They Have The Use Of Reasoning A Little Way, As In Numbering To Some Degree; Yet It Serves Them To Little Use In Common Life; In Which They Govern Themselves, Some Better, Some Worse, According To Their Differences Of Experience, Quickness Of Memory, And Inclinations To Several Ends; But Specially According To Good Or Evil Fortune, And The Errors Of One Another.
Memories
Men
Errors
In A Democracy, Look How Many Demagogs That Is How Many Powerful Orators There Are With The People.
Powerful
People
Democracy
Desire , To Know Why, And How, Curiosity; Such As Is In No Living Creature But Man ; So That Man Is Distinguished, Not Only By His Reason; But Also By This Singular Passion From Other Animals ; In Whom The Appetite Of Food, And Other Pleasures Of Sense, By Predominance, Take Away The Care Of Knowing Causes; Which Is A Lust Of The Mind, That By A Perseverance Of Delight In The Continual And Indefatigable Generation Of Knowledge, Exceedeth The Short Vehemence Of Any Carnal Pleasure.
Perseverance
Passion
Animal
The Praise Of Ancient Authors Proceeds Not From The Reverence Of The Dead, But From The Competition And Mutual Envy Of The Living.
Envy
Competition
Ancient
Prudence Is A Presumption Of The Future, Contracted From The Experience Of Time Past.
Past
Times Past
Prudence
Prophecy Is Many Times The Principal Cause Of The Events Foretold.
Events
Causes
Prophecy
It's Not The Pace Of Life I Mind. It's The Sudden Stop At The End.
Mind
Pace
Ends
Where There Is No Common Power, There Is No Law
Law
Leviathan
Common
But All This Language Gotten, And Augmented By Adam And His Posterity, Was Again Lost At The Tower Of Babel , When By The Hand Of God, Every Man Was Stricken For His Rebellion, With An Oblivion Of His Former Language.
Men
Hands
Towers
The Source Of Every Crime, Is Some Defect Of The Understanding; Or Some Error In Reasoning; Or Some Sudden Force Of The Passions. Defect In The Understanding Is Ignorance; In Reasoning, Erroneous Opinion.
Ignorance
Passion
Errors
If Nobody Makes You Do It, It Counts As Fun.
Fun
Ifs
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.
Science
Men
Definitions
As A Draft-animal Is Yoked In A Wagon, Even So The Spirit Is Yoked In This Body
Animal
Body
Wagons
The End Of Knowledge Is Power ... The Scope Of All Speculation Is The Performing Of Some Action Or Thing To Be Done.
Knowledge
Science
Power
Prudence Is But Experience, Which Equal Time Equally Bestows On All Men In Those Things They Equally Apply Themselves Unto.
Men
Equal
Caution
The Interpretation Of The Laws Of Nature In A Common-wealth, Dependeth Not On The Books Of Moral Philosophy. The Authority Of Writers, Without The Authority Of The Commonwealth, Maketh Not Their Opinions Law, Be They Never So True.
Philosophy
Book
Law
The Most Noble And Profitable Invention Of All Other, Was That Of Speech, Consisting Of Names Or Appellations, And Their Connexion; Whereby Men Register Their Thoughts; Recall Them When They Are Past; And Also Declare Them One To Another For Mutuall Utility And Conversation; Without Which, There Had Been Amongst Men, Neither Commonwealth, Nor Society, Nor Contract, Nor Peace, No More Than Amongst Lyons, Bears, And Wolves.
Science
Past
Men
The Privilege Of Absurdity; To Which No Living Creature Is Subject, But Man Only.
Life
Philosophical
Men
Of All Discourse , Governed By Desire Of Knowledge, There Is At Last An End , Either By Attaining, Or By Giving Over.
Giving
Desire
Lasts
To This War Of Every Man Against Every Man, This Also In Consequent; That Nothing Can Be Unjust. The Notions Of Right And Wrong, Justice And Injustice Have There No Place. Where There Is No Common Power, There Is No Law, Where No Law, No Injustice. Force, And Fraud, Are In War The Cardinal Virtues.
War
Men
Law
The Obligation Of Subjects To The Sovereign Is Understood To Last As Long, And No Longer, Than The Power Lasteth By Which He Is Able To Protect Them.
Power
Long
Leviathan
I Know Not How The World Will Receive It, Nor How It May Reflect On Those That Shall Seem To Favor It. For In A Way Beset With Those That Contend, On One Side For Too Great Liberty , And On The Other Side For Too Much Authority , 'tis Hard To Passe Between The Points Of Both Unwounded.
Liberty
May
Too Much
Moral Philosophy Is Nothing Else But The Science Of What Is Good, And Evil, In The Conversation, And Society Of Mankind. Good, And Evil, Are Names That Signify Our Appetites, And Aversions; Which In Different Tempers, Customs, And Doctrines Of Men, Are Different.
Philosophy
Men
Names
To Say God Spake Or Appeared As He Is In His Own Nature, Is To Deny His Infiniteness, Invisibility, Incomprehensibility.
God
Invisibility
Deny
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.
Life
Nature
Men
If I Read As Many Books As Most Men Do, I Would Be As Dull-witted As They Are.
Witty
Book
Men
Corporations Are "worms In The Body Politic"
Body
Corporations
Worms
For It Is With The Mysteries Of Our Religion, As With Wholesome Pills For The Sick, Which Swallowed Whole, Have The Virtue To Cure; But Chewed, Are For The Most Part Cast Up Again Without Effect.
Sick
Religion
Pills
For It Is Not The Shape, But Their Use, That Makes Them Angels.
Angel
Use
Shapes
Opinion Of Ghosts, Ignorance Of Second Causes, Devotion To What Men Fear, And Talking Of Things Casual For Prognostics, Consisteth The Natural Seeds Of Religion
Ignorance
Men
Talking
Ambition, And Covetousnesse Are Passions That Are Perpetually Incumbent, And Pressing.
Passion
Ambition
Political
But His Lordship [tells]us That God Is Wholly Here, And Wholly There, And Wholly Every Where; Because He Has No Parts. I Cannot Comprehend Nor Conceive This. For Methinks It Implies Also That The Whole World Is Also In The Whole God, And In Every Part Of God. Norcan I Find Anything Of This In The Scripture. If I Could Find It There, I Could Believe It; And If I Could Find It In The Public Doctrine Of The Church, I Could Easily Abstain From Contradicting It.
Bible
God
Believe
The Passions Of Men Are Commonly More Potent Than Their Reason.
Passion
Men
Reason
There Be As Many Persons Of A King, As There Be Petty Constables In His Kingdom. And So There Are, Or Else He Cannot Be Obeyed. But I Never Said That A King, And Every One Of His Persons, Are The Same Substance.
Kings
Identity
Substance
A Great Leap In The Dark
Dark
Last Words
Leap
Laughter Is Nothing Else But Sudden Glory Arising From Some Sudden Conception Of Some Eminency In Ourselves, By Comparison With The Infirmity Of Others, Or With Our Own Formerly.
Happiness
Laughter
Joy
So That In The First Place, I Put For A General Inclination Of All Mankind A Perpetual And Restless Desire Of Power After Power, That Ceaseth Only In Death. And The Cause Of This Is Not Always That A Man Hopes For A More Intensive Delight Than He Has Already Attained To, Or That He Cannot Be Content With A Moderate Power: But Because He Cannot Assure The Power And Means To Live Well, Which He Hath Present, Without The Acquisition Of More.
Mean
Men
Desire
Reason Is The Soul Of The Law.
Law
Political
Soul
The Papacy Is Not Other Than The Ghost Of The Deceased Roman Empire, Sitting Crowned Upon The Grave Thereof.
Sitting
Leviathan
Empires
Time, And Industry, Produce Everyday New Knowledge.
Everyday
Produce
Industry
And Because The Condition Of Man, (as Hath Been Declared In The Precedent Chapter) Is A Condition Of Warre Of Every One Against Everyone; In Which Case Every One Is Governed By His Own Reason; And There Is Nothing He Can Make Use Of, That May Not Be A Help Unto Him, In Preserving His Life Against His Enemyes; It Followeth, That In Such A Condition, Every Man Has A Right To Every Thing; Even To One Anothers Body.
Men
Body
May
Subjects Have No Greater Liberty In A Popular Than In A Monarchial State. That Which Deceives Them Is The Equal Participation Of Command.
Liberty
Deceiving
States
When A Man Tells Me God Hath Spoken In A Dream, I Know He Dreamt That God Spoke To Him.
Dream
Men
Spokes
Heresy Is A Word Which, When It Is Used Without Passion, Signifies A Private Opinion. So The Different Sects Of The Old Philosophers, Academians, Peripatetics, Epicureans, Stoics, &c., Were Called Heresies.
Passion
Atheism
Different
The World Is Governed By Opinion.
Politics
World
Opinion
For War, Consisteth Not In Battle Only, Or The Act Of Fighting; But In A Tract Of Time, Wherein The Will To Content By Battle Is Sufficiently Known.... So The Nature Of War, Consisteth Not In Actual Fighting; But In The Known Disposition Thereto, During All The Time There Is No Assurance To The Contrary. All Other Time Is Peace.
War
Fighting
Battle
By This We May Understand, There Be Two Sorts Of Knowledge, Whereof The One Is Nothing Else But Sense, Or Knowledge Original (as I Have Said At The Beginning Of The Second Chapter), And Remembrance Of The Same; The Other Is Called Science Or Knowledge Of The Truth Of Propositions, And How Things Are Called, And Is Derived From Understanding.
Knowledge
Science
Two
Life Is Nasty, Brutish, And Short
Nasty
Life Is
They That Approve A Private Opinion, Call It Opinion; But They That Dislike It, Heresy; And Yet Heresy Signifies No More Than Private Opinion.
Leviathan
Opinion
Orthodox
And As In Other Things, So In Men, Not The Seller, But The Buyer Determines The Price.
Men
Buyers
Determine
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.
Truth
Lying
Men
For It Can Never Be That War Shall Preserve Life, And Peace Destroy It.
War
Preserves
But Yet They That Have No Science , Are In Better, And Nobler Condition With Their Naturall Prudence; Than Men, That By Their Mis-reasoning, Or By Trusting Them That Reason Wrong, Fall Upon False And Absurd Generall Rules.
Fall
Men
Reason
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.
Men
Body
Earth
So That Every Crime Is A Sinne; But Not Every Sinne A Crime.
Crime
The Best Men Are The Least Suspicious Of Fraudulent Purposes.
Men
Atheism
Purpose
And For Incoherent Speech, It Was Amongst The Gentiles Taken For One Sort Of Prophecy, Because The Prophets Of Their Oracles, Intoxicated With A Spirit, Or Vapor From The Cave Of The Pythian Oracle At Delphi, Were For A Time Really Mad, And Spake Like Mad-men; Of Whoose Loose Words A Sense Might Be Made To Fit Any Event, In Such Sort, As All Bodies Are Said To Be Made Of Materia Prima .
Taken
Men
Mad
That A Man Be Willing, When Others Are So Too, As Far Forth As For Peace And Defense Of Himself He Shall Think It Necessary, To Lay Down This Right To All Things; And Be Contented With So Much Liberty Against Other Men, As He Would Allow Other Men Against Himself.
Peace
Men
Thinking
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.
Men
Evil
Vices
The First Author Of Speech Was God Himself, That Instructed Adam How To Name Such Creatures As He Presented To His Sight.
Sight
Names
Speech
They That Are Discontented Under Monarchy, Call It Tyranny; And They That Are Displeased With Aristocracy, Call It Oligarchy: So Also, They Which Find Themselves Grieved Under A Democracy, Call It Anarchy, Which Signifies The Want Of Government; And Yet I Think No Man Believes, That Want Of Government, Is Any New Kind Of Government.
Believe
Men
Thinking
A Man's Conscience And His Judgment Is The Same Thing; And As The Judgment, So Also The Conscience, May Be Erroneous.
Men
Judging
May
If Any Two Men Desire The Same Thing, Which Nevertheless They Cannot Both Enjoy, They Become Enemies.
Men
Two
Enemy
There Is No Such Thing As Perpetual Tranquillity Of Mind While We Live Here; Because Life Itself Is But Motion, And Can Never Be Without Desire, Nor Without Fear, No More Than Without Sense.
Fear
Mind
Desire
Seeing Then That Truth Consisteth In The Right Ordering Of Names In Our Affirmations, A Man That Seeketh Precise Truth, Had Need To Remember What Every Name He Uses Stands For; And To Place It Accordingly; Or Else He Will Find Himself Entangled In Words, As A Bird In Lime-twigs; The More He Struggles, The More Belimed.
Truth
Struggle
Men
And I Profess Still, That Whatsoever The Church Of England (the Church, I Say, Not Every Doctor) Shall Forbid Me To Say In Matterof Faith, I Shall Abstain From Saying It, Excepting This Point, That Jesus Christ, The Son Of God, Died For My Sins. As For Other Doctrines, I Think It Unlawful, If The Church Define Them, For Any Member Of The Church To Contradict Them.
Jesus
Son
Thinking
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