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Quote by Thomas Hobbes

Work

Man and Citizen: De Homine and De Cive

This book is a philosophical work that delves into the concepts of human nature and the role of citizens in society, drawing from the works of classical philosophers. more

Author

Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes, a British philosopher, politician, historian, economist, and writer, was born on April 5, 1588, in Wiltshire, and died on December 4, 1679, in Oxford, England. Hobbes is considered one of the most important philosophers of the 17th century, known for his profound analysis of the state, society, and human behavior. more

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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.”

MenActionEvilCausesVirtueHabitEthicsPraiseAffectionVicesGood And EvilCustomsMediocrityUsefulnessCommonwealth
Book:Behemoth or The Long Parliament
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“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.”

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Author:Thomas Hobbes
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“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”

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Book:The Essential Leviathan: A Modernized Edition
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“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.”

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Book:Of Liberty and Necessity; a treatise, wherein all controversy concerning predestination, election, free will, grace, merits, reprobation, etc. is fully decided and cleared. New edition
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“Casting an eye on the education of children, from whence I can make a judgment of my own, I observe they are instructed in religious matters before they can reason about them, and consequently that all such instruction is nothing else but filling the tender mind of a child with prejudices.”

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Book:Works: Account of His Life and Letters
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“There being in the make of an English mind a certain gloom and eagerness, which carries to the sad extreme; religion to fanaticism; free-thinking to atheism; liberty to rebellion.”

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Book:The Works of George Berkeley, D.D., Formerly Bishop of Cloyne: Philosophical works, 1732-33: Alciphron. The theory of vision
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“A man needs no arguments to make him discern and approve what is beautiful: it strikes at first sight, and attracts without a reason. And as this beauty is found in the shape and form of corporeal things, so also is there analogous to it a beauty of another kind, an order, a symmetry, and comeliness in the moral world. And as the eye perceiveth the one, so the mind doth by a certain interior sense perceive the other, which sense, talent, or faculty, is ever quickest and purest in the noblest minds.”

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Book:Alciphron: Or, The Minute Philosopher. In Seven Dialogues Containing an Apology for the Christian Religion Against Those who are Called Free-thinkers
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