If I had read as much as other men I would have known no more than they.
Interpretation
Reading widely allows for personal growth and unique insights beyond general knowledge.
In this quote, Thomas Hobbes emphasizes the importance of independent thought and critical analysis in one's pursuit of knowledge. He suggests that simply following the conventional path of reading what others do will not lead to greater understanding, but rather it is through personal exploration and questioning that true wisdom is achieved.
In practice
During a lecture on critical thinking, a professor cites this quote to encourage students to think for themselves.
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.
You people are telling me what you think I want to know. I want to know what is actually happening.
It is a good discipline to be forced to work for work's sake, even to the length of not being allowed to enjoy the fruits of one's labour.
Many of us spend our whole lives running from feeling with the mistaken belief that you can not bear the pain. But you have already borne the pain. What you have not done is feel all you are beyond that pain.
The people who say: 'You are what you eat' have always seemed addled to me. In my opinion, you are what you think, and if you don't think, you can eat all the meat in Kansas City and still be nothing but a vegetable.
Those who know don't tell and those who tell don't know.
If men possessed wisdom, which stands in the same relation to the form of man as the sight to the eye, they would not cause any injury to themselves or to others; for the knowledge of truth removes hatred and quarrels, and prevents mutual injuries.
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