The obligation of subjects to the sovereign is understood to last as long, and no longer, than the power lasteth by which he is able to protect them.
Interpretation
Political authority is conditional on the ruler's ability to protect the people.
This quote by Thomas Hobbes suggests that the relationship between a sovereign and their subjects is based on a contract of protection. The subjects owe their loyalty and obedience to the sovereign only as long as the sovereign has the power to ensure their safety and security; if the sovereign fails in this duty, the foundation of their authority is undermined.
In practice
In a political debate discussing the role of government in society.
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.
For darkness restores what light cannot repair.
The person who talks most of his own virtue is often the least virtuous.
Once we overcome our fear of being tiny, we find ourselves on the threshold of a vast and awesome Universe that utterly dwarfs β in time, in space, and in potential β the tidy anthropocentric proscenium of our ancestors.
A monomaniac is a sick person whose mentality is perfectly healthy in all respects but one; he has a single flaw, clearly localized. At times, for example, he has an unreasonable and absurd desire to drink or steal or use abusive language; but all his other acts and all his other thoughts are strictly correct.
It is so characteristic, that just when the mechanics of reproduction are so vastly improved, there are fewer and fewer people who know how the music should be played.
In the affluent society, no useful distinction can be made between luxuries and necessities.
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