The secret thoughts of a man run over all things, holy, profane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame or blame.
Interpretation
Everyone has private thoughts that encompass a wide range of subjects, free from judgment.
This quote by Thomas Hobbes suggests that a person's internal thoughts can traverse across numerous topics, whether they are sacred or sinful, serious or trivial. It highlights the complexity of human thought, emphasizing that our minds are capable of contemplating all facets of existence without the constraints of societal judgment or moral accountability.
In practice
In a philosophical debate about the nature of human thought.
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.
I seem to have run in a great circle, and met myself again on the starting line.
For often, when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream.
We believe in resolving all disputes peacefully.
There is no doubt that the world economy is in trouble. But if governments or individuals use this as an excuse to reduce assistance to the world's poorest people, they will only multiply the seriousness of the problem for the world as a whole.
Between too early and too late, there is never more than a moment.
In some ways I feel sorry for racists and for religious fanatics, because they so much miss the point of being human, and deserve a sort of pity. But then I harden my heart, and decide to hate them all the more, because of the misery they inflict and because of the contemptible excuses they advance for doing so.
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