In the state of nature profit is the measure of right.
Interpretation
Hobbes suggests that in a natural state, what benefits individuals defines morality.
Thomas Hobbes posits that in the absence of societal structures, individuals act based on self-interest, and the concept of right and wrong is dictated by personal gain. This implies that morality is not inherent, but rather, derived from the pursuit of profit and personal advantage in a natural state, which can lead to a chaotic existence where might equals right.
In practice
During a debate on ethics, this quote can illustrate the foundations of moral philosophy.
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.
Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as an enlightened person. There is only enlightened activity.
I have a different idea of a universal. It is of a universal rich with all that is particular, rich with all the particulars there are, the deepening of each particular, the coexistence of them all.
I am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.
Consider that the trials and troubles, the calamities and miseries, the crosses and losses that you meet with in this world, are all the hell that ever you shall have.
If we want to save the world, we must have a plan. But no plan will work unless we meditate.
While I fear that we're drawn to what abandons us, and to what seems most likely to abandon us, in the end I believe we're defined by what embraces us.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.