Not believing in force is the same as not believing in gravitation.
Interpretation
Disregarding the notion of power is akin to ignoring the fundamental laws of nature.
In this quote, Thomas Hobbes asserts that the belief in the necessity of force is as essential as the acknowledgment of natural laws like gravity. To deny the importance of force in human affairs is to misunderstand the nature of power dynamics that govern relationships and society, similar to how one cannot ignore the physical laws that govern the universe.
In practice
In a speech on the necessity of regulation in society, I could reference Hobbes' quote to emphasize the importance of acknowledging power structures.
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.
The end of knowledge is power ... the scope of all speculation is the performing of some action or thing to be done.
What you do, what you say, how you react to critical situations defines not just the moment, but it defines and shapes you.
There are metaphysical problems, problems of human existence, that philosophy has never known how to grasp in all their concreteness and that only the novel can seize.
If you take responsibility for what you are doing to yourself, how you produce your symptoms, how you produce your illness, how you produce your existence-the very moment you get in touch with yourself-growth begins, integration begins.
An object is not so attached to its name that we cannot find another one that would suit it better.
A person who has not completely lost the memory of paradise, even though it is a faint one, will suffer endlessly. He will feel the call of the essential world, will hear the voice that comes from so far away that one cannot find out where it comes from, a voice that cannot guide him.
Force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that_x000D_ tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels.
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