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.
It is certain that the easy and obvious philosophy will always, with the generality of mankind, have preference above the accurate.
Civilizations can only be understood by those who are civilized.
I have faith in the Torah. I am not afraid of truth.
It is easy to imagine fantasy as physical and myth as real. We do it almost every moment. We do this as we dream, as we think, and as we cope with the world about us. But these worlds of fantasy that we form into the solid things around us are the source of our discontent. They inspire our search to find ourselves.
I began graduate school in the late 1980s, and my goal was to understand how morality varied across cultures and nations. I did some research comparing moral judgment in India and the U.S.A.
It's disquieting to reflect that one's dreams never symbolize one's real wishes, but always something Much Worse... If I really wanted to be passionately embraced by Peter, I should dream of dentists or gardening. I wonder what unspeakable depths of awfulness can only be expressed by the polite symbol of Peter's embraces?
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