The end of knowledge is power ... the scope of all speculation is the performing of some action or thing to be done.
Interpretation
Knowledge leads to the ability to take action, and all speculation ultimately serves a practical purpose.
In this quote, Thomas Hobbes suggests that the ultimate goal of acquiring knowledge is to empower individuals to take action. He posits that all speculation or theoretical thought has its purpose in informing and guiding real-world actions, emphasizing the importance of knowledge as a precursor to power and practical execution in life.
In practice
This quote can be used in a graduation speech to inspire students about the importance of applying their knowledge.
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.
Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.
For it is not the shape, but their use, that makes them angels.
For to accuse requires less eloquence, such is man's nature, than to excuse; and condemnation, than absolution, more resembles justice.
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.
They that approve a private opinion, call it opinion; but they that dislike it, heresy; and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion.
I have made it a rule of my life to trust a man long after other people gave him up, but I don't see how I can ever trust any human being again.
When you see a mistake in somebody else, try to find if you are making the same mistake.
It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.
Upon this gifted age, in its dark hour falls from the sky a meteoric shower of facts; They lie unquestioned, uncombined. Wisdom enough to leech us of our ill is daily spun, But there exists no loom to weave it into fabric.
Later, she would remember these years, and realize with astonishment that she had, by fifteen, decided on most of the assumptions she would carry for the rest of her life: that people were essentially not evil, that perfection was death, that life was better than order and a little chaos good for the soul. Most important, this life was all. Unfortunately, she forgot these things, and had to remember them the hard way.
Though through all his life a fool associates with a wise man, he yet understands not the Dharma, as the spoon, the flavor of soup.
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