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About this quote

What does it mean?
Without society, life is full of fear, loneliness, and poverty.
In plain terms
Without a community, life is scary, lonely, and hard.
What can you take from it?
Society is essential for safety and a decent quality of life.

Where it applies

  • political theory
  • history
  • law

Putting it to work

  • build cooperative communities
  • support public safety

Questions to consider

  • What would life be like without laws?
  • How does safety affect quality of life?

Another view

Some individuals may thrive in isolation, though most suffer without society.

More from Thomas Hobbes

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  3. For War, consisteth not in Battell onely, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the Will to contend by Battell is sufficiently known: and the…

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