"For no man giveth but with intention of good to himself; because gift is voluntary; and of all voluntary acts the object is to every man his own good . . . . "
" . . . A man that, by asperity of nature, will strive to retain those things which to himself are superfluous and to others necessary; and for the stubbornness of his passions cannot be corrected, is to be left or cast out of society, as cumbersome thereunto. For seeing every man, not only by right but by necessity of nature, is supposed to endeavour all he can to obtain that which is necessary for his conservation, he that shall oppose himself against it for things superfluous is guilty of the war than thereupon is to follow; and therefore doth that which is contrary to the fundamental law of nature, which commandeth to seek peace."
"Covenants without the sword are but words . . ."
"Amongst men there are very many that think themselves wiser and abler to govern the public better than the rest; and these strive to reform and innovate, one this way and another that way, and thereby bring it into distraction and civil war."
There are two traditions in politics.
One erects politics upon, or subordinates it to, morality and the other does not.
Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, the Christians, and Locke are in the former camp.
Protagoras, the Sophists, the Epicureans, Thucydides, Machiavelli, Spinoza, and Hobbes are in the latter.
No comments:
Post a Comment