For there are very few so foolish who would not rather govern themselves than be governed by others.
Interpretation
People generally prefer to have control over their own lives rather than being controlled by others.
In this quote, Thomas Hobbes emphasizes the innate human desire for autonomy and self-governance. He suggests that wisdom lies in recognizing the value of personal agency, asserting that most individuals would choose the responsibility of governing themselves over the limitations imposed by outside forces.
In practice
In a discussion about democracy, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of self-governance.
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.
Most nations, as well as people are impossible only in their youth; they become incorrigible as they grow older.
There is no illness of the body except for the mind
It seems that fighting is a game where everybody is the loser.
For though a man should be a complete unbeliever in the being of gods; if he also has a native uprightness of temper, such persons will detest evil in men; their repugnance to wrong disinclines them to commit wrongful acts; they shun the unrighteous and are drawn to the upright.
We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. But habit is a great deadener.
Jesus never says to the poor: ‘come find the church’, but he says to those of us in the church: ‘go into the world and find the poor, hungry, homeless, imprisoned.
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