“Of all Discourse, governed by desire of Knowledge, there is at last an End, either by attaining, or by giving over.”
The First Part, Chapter 7, p. 30
Leviathan (1651)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Thomas Hobbes 97
English philosopher, born 1588 1588–1679Related quotes
Source: The Functions of the Executive (1938), p. 19 (in 1968 edition)

“Desire can attain the darkest human terror and give an actual ideal of hell and its horror.”

Opinion on the Constitutionality of the Bank (23 February 1791)

Book I, v, 11
The Advancement of Learning (1605)
Context: The greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge: for men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men: as if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a tarrasse, for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower of state, for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or commanding ground, for strife and contention; or a shop, for profit or sale; and not a rich storehouse, for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate.

Appendix A
1910s, Theodore Roosevelt — An Autobiography (1913)

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 257.

Source: Nature of Man and His Government (1959), p. 45

1960s, Special message to Congress on the right to vote (1965)