The power of a man is his present means to obtain some future apparent good.
Interpretation
A man's strength lies in his ability to leverage current resources for future benefits.
Thomas Hobbes' quote emphasizes the importance of utilizing one's present capabilities and resources to secure future advantages. It suggests that power is not merely a static attribute but is inherently tied to one's potential to innovate, strategize, and act in pursuit of future gains. This perspective reinforces the idea that foresight and planning are integral to personal and societal strength.
In practice
Use this quote in a leadership seminar to illustrate the importance of planning for success.
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 is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes.
If there is anything more annoying in the world than having people talk about you, it is certainly having no one talk about you.
As if they were our own handiwork we place a high value on our characters.
Hypocrisy is wretched because the hypocrite says with his tongue what is not in his heart. He wrongs his tongue and oppresses his heart. But if the heart is sound, the condition of the tongue follows suit. We are commanded to be upright in speech, which is a gauge of the heart's state.
I tell you what's really ridiculous--going into a bookstore and there's all these books about yourself. In a way, it feels like you're already dead.
The American Constitution, one of the few modern political documents drawn up by men who were forced by the sternest circumstances to think out what they really had to face, instead of chopping logic in a university classroom.
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