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It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law
Thomas Hobbes
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Law is established through authority rather than wisdom.

In this quote, Thomas Hobbes emphasizes the distinction between wisdom and authority in the context of law. He suggests that laws are created and enforced by those in power regardless of whether they are wise, indicating that the legitimacy of law comes more from the authority that enacts it than from the moral or intellectual justification of its content.

Themes

LawAuthorityWisdomPowerPhilosophy

In practice

Example use cases

During a debate on whether laws should be based on moral wisdom, one could use this quote to emphasize the role of authority in lawmaking.

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The end of knowledge is power ... the scope of all speculation is the performing of some action or thing to be done.
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