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About this quote

What does it mean?
War is not just a single battle but a prolonged period of conflict, similar to how weather persists over time.
In plain terms
War is a lasting condition, not a one‑off event.
What can you take from it?
Consider the long‑term impacts of conflict.

Where it applies

  • military strategy
  • peace negotiations

Putting it to work

  • plan for prolonged engagement
  • address underlying causes

Questions to consider

  • How does time change the nature of war?
  • What can break a prolonged conflict?

Another view

Focusing on duration may overlook the human cost.

More from Thomas Hobbes

  1. During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against ev…

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  2. To this war of every man against every man, this also in consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice have the…

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  3. For such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; Yet they will hardly believ…

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