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About this quote

What does it mean?
An individual's error does not become a binding law or require persistence.
In plain terms
Just because you made a mistake doesn't mean you must stick with it.
What can you take from it?
Mistakes do not create obligations to continue them.

Where it applies

  • personal decisions
  • policy review
  • ethics

Putting it to work

  • abandon bad practices
  • correct errors freely

Questions to consider

  • When is it right to change your mind?
  • Do past choices bind us?

Another view

It ignores cases where stopping an error has high costs.

More from Thomas Hobbes

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  2. The source of every crime, is some defect of the understanding; or some error in reasoning; or some sudden force of the passions.

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  3. For the Lawes of Nature (as Justice, Equity, Modesty, Mercy, and (in summe) Doing To Others, As Wee Would Be Done To,) if themselves, without the terrour of so…

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