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About this quote

What does it mean?
Truth that does not harm anyone's interests or enjoyment is accepted by everyone.
In plain terms
People accept truths that do not cost them anything or make them unhappy.
What can you take from it?
Avoid claiming truths that threaten others' benefits to gain acceptance.

Where it applies

  • debate
  • diplomacy
  • negotiation

Putting it to work

  • frame arguments neutrally
  • identify stakeholder benefits

Questions to consider

  • When might truth be unwelcome even if harmless?
  • How do you define profit in a given context?

Another view

This ignores that some truths are welcome regardless of profit or pleasure.

More from Thomas Hobbes

  1. The praise of ancient authors proceeds not from the reverence of the dead, but from the competition and mutual envy of the living.

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  2. And if a man consider the original of this great ecclesiastical dominion, he will easily perceive, that the Papacy, is no other than the ghost of the deceased …

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  3. Leisure is the mother of philosophy.

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