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And a special thanks for not burning up the whole ship. Including yourself, you daft bum-rag.Scott Westerfeld
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For it can never be that war shall preserve life, and peace destroy it.Thomas Hobbes
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Hell is truth seen too late.Thomas Hobbes
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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.Thomas Hobbes
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Nature indeed plants the seeds of religion--fear and ignorance kingcraft and priestcraft water and tend it.W.G. Pogson Smith
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Maybe this was how you stayed sane in wartime: a handful of noble deeds amid the chaos.Scott Westerfeld
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And because the condition of man . is a condition of war of every one against every one, 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 enemies; it followeth that in such a condition every man has a right to every thing, even to one another's body. And therefore, as long as this natural right of every man to every thing endureth, there can be no security to any man, how strong or wise soever he be, of living out the time which nature ordinarily alloweth men to live. And consequently it is a precept, or general rule of reason: that every man ought to endeavour peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek and use all helps and advantages of war. The first branch of which rule containeth the first and fundamental law of nature, which is: to seek peace and follow it. The second, the sum of the right of nature, which is: by all means we can to defend ourselves. .Thomas Hobbes
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That was the trick - to keep punching, no matter what.Scott Westerfeld
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For, from the time that the Bishop of Rome had gotten to be acknowledged for bishop universal, by pretence of succession to St. Peter, their whole hierarchy, or kingdom of darkness, may be compared not unfitly to the kingdom of fairies; that is, to the old wives' fables in England concerning ghosts and spirits, and the feats they play in the night. 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 Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof: for so did the papacy start up on a sudden out of the ruins of that heathen power.Thomas Hobbes
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The universe, the whole mass of things that are, is corporeal, that is to say, body, and hath the dimensions of magnitude, length, breadth and depth. Every part of the universe is ‘body’ and that which is not ‘body’ is no part of the universe, and because the universe is all, that which is no part of it is nothing, and consequently nowhere.Thomas Hobbes
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For such is the nature of man, 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 mens at a distance.Thomas Hobbes
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Another doctrine repugnant to civil society, is that whatsoever a man does against his conscience, is sin; and it dependeth on the presumption of making himself judge of good and evil. For a man's conscience and his judgement are the same thing, and as the judgement, so also the conscience may be erroneous.Thomas Hobbes
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Most men's awareness doesn't extend past their dinner plates.Scott Westerfeld
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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.Thomas Hobbes
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The man was allergic to sleep.Scott Westerfeld
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As if it were Injustice to sell dearer than we buy; or to give more to a man than he merits. 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.Thomas Hobbes
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Barking hard work, being a boy.Scott Westerfeld
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Deryn put her own arms around herself, but it didn't feel the same." Barking spiders, " she muttered softly,Scott Westerfeld
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When you're dealing with these forces or powers in a philosophic and scientific way, contemplating them from an armchair, that rationalistic approach is useful. It is quite profitable then to regard the gods and goddesses and demons as projections of the human mind or as unconscious aspects of ourselves. But every truth is a truth only for one place and one time, and that's a truth, as I said, for the armchair. When you're actually dealing with these figures, the only safe, pragmatic and operational approach is to treat them as having a being, a will, and a purpose entirely apart from the humans who evoke them. If the Sorcerer's Apprentice had understood that, he wouldn't have gotten into so much trouble.Robert Anton Wilson
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Fact be virtuous, or vicious, as Fortune pleasethThomas Hobbes