For to accuse requires less eloquence, such is man's nature, than to excuse; and condemnation, than absolution, more resembles justice.
Interpretation
Human nature tends to be more judgmental than forgiving.
In the quote, Hobbes emphasizes that people find it easier to blame others rather than offer understanding or forgiveness. He suggests that the act of condemning someone often feels more justified and aligns with an innate human propensity for judgment, contrasting this with the challenge of providing absolution, which requires a greater level of eloquence and compassion.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion on ethics and morality in a philosophy class.
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.
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.
They that approve a private opinion, call it opinion; but they that dislike it, heresy; and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion.
I was brought up to appreciate the here and now, and, knowing this is your only life, to view death as an inevitable and reassuring end.
To be poor does not mean you lack the means to extend charity to another. You may lack money or food, but you have the gift of friendship to overwhelm the loneliness that grips the lives of so many.
Confine yourself to the present.
There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all.
All activities and events that a body is to go through are determined at the time of conception.
If we are to keep democracy, there must be a commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.
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