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No Discourse Whatsoever, Can End In Absolute Knowledge Of Fact.
-Thomas Hobbes
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No Discourse Whatsoever, Can

Thomas Hobbes
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No Discourse Whatsoever, Can End In Absolute Knowledge Of Fact.

Understanding the Quote: "no discourse whatsoever, can end in absolute knowledge of fact...."

This quote by Thomas Hobbes reflects deeply on the theme of atheism. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Atheism, Facts, Ends, 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 atheism and facts. 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
Atheism
Facts
Ends
More From Thomas Hobbes
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?
Liberty
Littles
Fruit
All Generous Minds Have A Horror Of What Are Commonly Called 'facts'. They Are The Brute Beasts Of The Intellectual Domain.
Intellectual
Mind
Facts
No Man Can Be Judge To His Own Cause.
Men
Judging
Causes
No Man Is Bound By The Words Themselves, Either To Kill Himselfe, Or Any Other Man.
Men
Bounds
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
The Passions Of Men Are Commonly More Potent Than Their Reason.
Passion
Men
Reason
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
The Best Men Are The Least Suspicious Of Fraudulent Purposes.
Men
Atheism
Purpose
And In These Four Things, Opinion Of Ghosts , Ignorance Of Second Causes, Devotion Towards What Men Fear , And Taking Of Things Casual For Prognostics , Consisteth The Natural Seed Of Religion ; Which By Reason Of The Different Fancies, Judgments And Passions Of Several Men, Has Grown Up Into Ceremonies So Different, That Those Which Are Used By One Man, Are For The Most Part Ridiculous To Another.
Ignorance
Passion
Men
No Discourse Whatsoever, Can End In Absolute Knowledge Of Fact.
Atheism
Facts
Ends
Such Is The Nature Of Men, That Howsoever They May Acknowledge Many Others To Be More Witty, Or More Eloquent, Or More Learned; Yet They Will Hardly Believe There Be Many So Wise As Themselves.
Wise
Wisdom
Witty
Passions Unguided Are For The Most Part Mere Madness.
Passion
Madness
Mere
Prophecy Is Many Times The Principal Cause Of The Events Foretold.
Events
Causes
Prophecy
Words Are The Counters Of Wise Men, But The Money Of Fools.
Wise
Men
Fool
For It Is Not The Shape, But Their Use, That Makes Them Angels.
Angel
Use
Shapes
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
The Secret Thoughts Of A Man Run Over All Things, Holy, Profane, Clean, Obscene, Grave, And Light, Without Shame Or Blame.
Running
Men
Ideas
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
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
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
For It Can Never Be That War Shall Preserve Life, And Peace Destroy It.
War
Preserves
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
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
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 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
Geometry Is The Only Science That It Hath Pleased God Hitherto To Bestow On Mankind.
God
Mathematical
Mankind
Curiosity Is The Lust Of The Mind.
Life Lesson
Philosophical
Lust
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
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
Understanding Is Nothing Else Than Conception Caused By Speech.
Philosophical
Understanding
Speech
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
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
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
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
Emulation Is Grief Arising From Seeing One's Self, Exceeded Or Excelled By His Concurrent, Together With Hope To Equal Or Exceed Him In Time To Come, By His Own Ability. But Envy Is The Same Grief Joined With Pleasure Conceived In The Imagination Of Some Ill-fortune That May Befall Him.
Grief
Self
Envy
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
In A Democracy, Look How Many Demagogs That Is How Many Powerful Orators There Are With The People.
Powerful
People
Democracy
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
Corporations Are May Lesser Commonwealths In The Bowels Of A Greater, Like Worms In The Entrails Of A Natural Man.
Men
Political
May
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
Man Is Distinguished Not Only By His Reason, But Also By This Singular Passion, From All Other Animals.
Passion
Men
Animal
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
A Covenant Not To Defend My Selfe From Force, By Force, Is Always Voyd.
Covenant
Force
Such Truth, As Opposeth No Man's Profit, Nor Pleasure, Is To All Men Welcome.
Philosophical
Men
Welcome
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
Science Is The Knowledge Of Consequences, And Dependence Of One Fact Upon Another.
Science
Reality
Facts
The Power Of A Man Is His Present Means To Obtain Some Future Apparent Good.
Mean
Men
Goodness
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
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
Science [is] Knowledge Of The Truth Of Propositions And How Things Are Called.
Propositions
Humans Are Driven By A Perpetual And Restless Desire Of Power.
Desire
Restless
Driven
Fear Of Power Invisible, Feigned By The Mind Or Imagined From Tales Publicly Allowed, Is Religion; Not Allowed, Superstition.
Mind
Atheism
Superstitions
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
No Mans Error Becomes His Own Law; Nor Obliges Him To Persist In It.
Mistake
Errors
Law
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
The Errors Of Definitions Multiply Themselves According As The Reckoning Proceeds; And Lead Men Into Absurdities, Which At Last They See But Cannot Avoid, Without Reckoning Anew From The Beginning.
Truth
Knowledge
Math
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
Unnecessary Laws Are Not Good Laws, But Traps For Money.
Freedom
Law
Liberty
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
As A Draft-animal Is Yoked In A Wagon, Even So The Spirit Is Yoked In This Body
Animal
Body
Wagons
And Where Men Build On False Grounds, The More They Build, The Greater Is The Ruine
Men
Greater
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
Hell Is Truth Seen Too Late.
Truth
Philosophy
Too Late
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
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.
Knowledge
Science
Power
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
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 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
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
Curiosity Draws A Man From Consideration Of The Effect, To Seek The Cause.
Men
Curiosity
Atheism
The Papacy Is Not Other Than The Ghost Of The Deceased Roman Empire, Sitting Crowned Upon The Grave Thereof.
Sitting
Leviathan
Empires
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
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
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
There Is More In Mersenne Than In All The Universities Together.
Math
Together
University
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 First Author Of Speech Was God Himself, That Instructed Adam How To Name Such Creatures As He Presented To His Sight.
Sight
Names
Speech
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
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
It's Not The Pace Of Life I Mind. It's The Sudden Stop At The End.
Mind
Pace
Ends
Time, And Industry, Produce Everyday New Knowledge.
Everyday
Produce
Industry
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
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
Wisdom, Properly So Called, Is Nothing Else But This: The Perfect Knowledge Of The Truth In All Matters Whatsoever.
Wisdom
Perfect
Matter
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
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
If Any Two Men Desire The Same Thing, Which Nevertheless They Cannot Both Enjoy, They Become Enemies.
Men
Two
Enemy
For There Are Very Few So Foolish Who Would Not Rather Govern Themselves Than Be Governed By Others.
Liberty
Foolish
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
It Is Many Times With A Fraudulent Design That Men Stick Their Corrupt Doctrine With The Cloves Of Other Mens Wit.
Men
Design
Doctrine
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
All Men, Among Themselves, Are By Nature Equal. The Inequality We Now Discern Hath Its Spring From The Civil Law.
Spring
Men
Law
Love Is A Person's Idea About His/her Needs In Other Person What You Are Attracted To.
Love Is
Ideas
Needs
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
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
The First Cause Of Absurd Conclusions I Ascribe To The Want Of Method.
Want
Firsts
Causes
Thoughts Are To The Desires As Scouts And Spies, To Range Abroad, And Find The Way To The Things Desired.
Spy
Desire
Way
I Shall Be Glad Then To Find A Hole To Creep Out Of The World.
Atheism
World
Holes
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
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
The Present Only Has A Being In Nature; Things Past Have A Being In The Memory Only, But Things To Come Have No Being At All; The Future But A Fiction Of The Mind.
Memories
Future
Past
It Is Manifest Therefore That They Who Have Sovereign Power, Are Immediate Rulers Of The Church Under Christ, And All Others But Subordinate To Them. If That Were Not, But Kings Should Command One Thing Upon Pain Of Death, And Priests Another Upon Pain Of Damnation, It Would Be Impossible That Peace And Religion Should Stand Together.
Kings
Pain
Government
As Soon As A Thought Darts, I Write It Down.
Writing
Preparation
Darts
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.
Sight
Shining
Sun
Ambition, And Covetousnesse Are Passions That Are Perpetually Incumbent, And Pressing.
Passion
Ambition
Political
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
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
The Register Of Knowledge Of Fact Is Called History .
Facts
Register
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
Religions Are Like Pills, Which Must Be Swallowed Whole Without Chewing.
Atheist
Atheism
Pills
The Condition Of Man... Is A Condition Of War Of Everyone Against Everyone.
War
Men
Survival
Competition Of Praise Inclineth To A Reverence Of Antiquity. For Men Contend With The Living, Not With The Dead.
Men
Competition
Praise
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
A Great Leap In The Dark
Dark
Last Words
Leap
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
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
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
Of All Discourse , Governed By Desire Of Knowledge, There Is At Last An End , Either By Attaining, Or By Giving Over.
Giving
Desire
Lasts
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 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
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
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
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
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
So That Every Crime Is A Sinne; But Not Every Sinne A Crime.
Crime
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 From Death.
Men
Covenant
Void
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
For If All Things Were Equally In All Men, Nothing Would Be Prized.
Equality
Men
Would Be
Whatsoever Accidents Or Qualities Our Senses Make Us Think There Be In The World, They Are Not There, But Are Seemings And Apparitions Only. The Things That Really Are In The World Without Us, Are Those Motions By Which These Seemings Are Caused. And This Is The Great Deception Of Sense, Which Also Is By Sense To Be Corrected. For As Sense Telleth Me, When I See Directly, That The Colour Seemeth To Be In The Object; So Also Sense Telleth Me, When I See By Reflection, That Colour Is Not In The Object.
Science
Thinking
Reflection
It Is Not Wisdom But Authority That Makes A Law
Law
Justice
Authority
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 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
Do Not That To Another, Which Thou Wouldst Not Have Done To Thyself.
Done
Thyself
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
The Science Which Teacheth Arts And Handicrafts Is Merely Science For The Gaining Of A Living; But The Science Which Teacheth Deliverance From Worldly Existence, Is Not That The True Science?
Art
Deliverance
Existence
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
Immortality Is A Belief Grounded Upon Other Men's Sayings, That They Knew It Supernaturally; Or That They Knew Those Who Knew Them That Knew Others That Knew It Supernaturally.
Men
Atheism
Belief
Silence Is Sometimes An Argument Of Consent.
Silence
Atheism
Argument
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
Setting Themselves Against Reason, As Often As Reason Is Against Them.
Reason
Settings
Setting
For To Accuse Requires Less Eloquence, Such Is Man's Nature, Than To Excuse; And Condemnation, Than Absolution, More Resembles Justice.
Men
Justice
Excuse
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
Desire Of Praise Disposeth To Laudable Actions.
Desire
Action
Praise
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
Life In The State Of Nature Is Solitary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish, And Short.
Society
Liberty
Nasty
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
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
Christian Kings May Erre In Deducing A Consequence, But Who Shall Judge?
Christian
Kings
Judging
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
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.
Science
Men
Light
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
The Privilege Of Absurdity; To Which No Living Creature Is Subject, But Man Only.
Life
Philosophical
Men
Force And Fraud Are In War The Two Cardinal Virtues.
War
Two
Hype
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
Reason Is The Soul Of The Law.
Law
Political
Soul
I Put For The General Inclination Of All Mankind, A Perpetual And Restless Desire Of Power After Power, That Ceaseth Only In Death.
Authority And Power
Desire
Leviathan
Those Men That Are So Remissly Governed That They Dare Take Up Arms To Defend Or Introduce An Opinion, Are Still In War, And Their Condition Not Peace, But Only A Cessation Of Arms For Fear Of One Another, And They Live As It Were In The Precincts Of Battle Continually.
War
Men
Battle
Fear Of Things Invisible Is The Natural Seed Of That Which Everyone In Himself Calleth Religion.
Fear
Religion
Leviathan
For All Laws Are General Judgements, Or Sentences Of The Legislator; As Also Every Particular Judgement Is A Law To Him Whose Case Is Judged.
Law
Judgement
Cases
For Such Is The Nature Of Men, That Howsoever They May Acknowledge Many Others To Be More Witty, Or More Eloquent, Or More Learned, Yet They Will Hardly Believe There Be Many So Wise As Themselves, For They See Their Own Wit At Hand, And Other Men's At A Distance. But This Proveth Rather That Men Are In That Point Equal, Than Unequal. For There Is Not Ordinarily A Greater Sign Of The Equal Distribution Of Any Thing Than That Every Man Is Contented With His Share.
Wise
Wisdom
Witty
Covenants Without Swords Are But Words.
Covenant
Weapons
[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
Nature Itself Cannot Err
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
Leisure Is The Mother Of Philosophy; And Commonwealth, The Mother Of Peace And Leisure.
Mother
Philosophy
Leisure
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
If I Had Read As Much As Other Men I Would Have Known No More Than They.
Men
Library
Known
From The Same It Proceedeth,that Men Gives Different Names, To One And The Same Thing, From The Difference Of Their Own Passions: As They That Approve A Private Opinion, Call It Opinion; But They That Mislike It, Haeresie: And Yet Haeresie Signifies No More Than Private Opinion; But Has Only Agreater Tincture Of Choler
Passion
Men
Names
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
Where There Is No Common Power, There Is No Law
Law
Leviathan
Common
Obligation Is Thraldom, And Thraldom Is Hateful.
Hateful
Obligation
When A Man Tells Me God Hath Spoken In A Dream, I Know He Dreamt That God Spoke To Him.
Dream
Men
Spokes
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
I Am About To Take My Last Voyage, A Great Leap In The Dark.
Philosophical
Dark
Journey
When All The World Is Overcharged With Inhabitants, Then The Last Remedy Of All Is War, Which Provideth For Every Man, By Victory Or Death.
War
Men
Victory
If I Read As Many Books As Most Men Do, I Would Be As Dull-witted As They Are.
Witty
Book
Men
The Enemy Has Been Here In The Night Of Our Natural Ignorance, And Sown The Tares Of Spiritual Errors.
Spiritual
Ignorance
Night
A Man Cannot Lay Down The Right Of Resisting Them That Assault Him By Force, To Take Away His Life.
Life
Philosophical
Men
Fact Be Vertuous, Or Vicious, As Fortune Pleaseth
Facts
Vicious
Fortune
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
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
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
To Say God Spake Or Appeared As He Is In His Own Nature, Is To Deny His Infiniteness, Invisibility, Incomprehensibility.
God
Invisibility
Deny
Leisure Is The Mother Of Philosophy.
Mother
Philosophy
Philosophical
Life Is Nasty, Brutish, And Short
Nasty
Life Is
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 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
Sudden Glory Is The Passion Which Maketh Those Grimaces Called Laughter.
Happiness
Laughter
Philosophical
Prudence Is A Presumption Of The Future, Contracted From The Experience Of Time Past.
Past
Times Past
Prudence
From Whence It Follows, That Were The Publique And Private Interest Are Most Closely United, There Is The Publique Most Advanced.
Interest
United
Understanding Is By The Flame Of The Passions Never Enlightened, But Dazzled.
Passion
Flames
Understanding
And As In Other Things, So In Men, Not The Seller, But The Buyer Determines The Price.
Men
Buyers
Determine
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
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
If Nobody Makes You Do It, It Counts As Fun.
Fun
Ifs
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
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
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
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
There Is No Such Thing As Perpetual Tranquility Of Mind While We Live Here.
Mind
Tranquility
Perpetual
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