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Dreams are imagination during sleep, which are constituted, either in whole or in part, from past perceptions and experience. Fearful dreams come from fearful objects, and the emotions and passions experienced in dreams can cause an actual response in the human body. According to Hobbes, the inability to discern dreams from reality is rooted in past religions that believed in nymphs, fairies, and satyrs. People often claim that God spoke to them in a dream, but Hobbes clarifies that such people only dreamed about God. Dreaming that God has spoken isn’t to say that God has actually spoken, and Hobbes warns that people often lie.
Dreams Quotes in Leviathan
The Leviathan quotes below are all either spoken by Dreams or refer to Dreams. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2
Quotes
For my part, when I consider, that in Dreams, I do not often, nor constantly think of the same Persons, Places, Objects, and Actions that I do waking; nor remember so long a trayne of coherent thoughts, Dreaming, as at other times; And because waking I often observe the absurdity of Dreames, but never dream of the absurdities of my waking Thoughts; I am well satisfied, that being awake, I know I dreame not; though when I dreame, I think my selfe awake.
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From this ignorance of how to distinguish Dreams, and other strong Fancies, from Vision and Sense, did arise the greatest part of the Religion of the Gentiles in time past, that worshipped Satyres, Fawnes, Nymphs, and the like; and now adayes the opinion that rude people have Fayries, Ghosts, and Goblins; […] And for Fayries, and walking Ghosts, the opinion of them has I think been on purpose, either taught, or not confuted, to keep in credit the use of Exorcisme, of Crosses, of holy Water, and other such inventions of Ghostly men.
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Dreams Term Timeline in Leviathan
The timeline below shows where the term Dreams appears in Leviathan. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2: Of Imagination
Imagination during sleep are dreams, and dreams are constituted by previous perceptions, either totally or in part. Dreams vary in...
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Dreams can be difficult to discern if one is not aware they have slept, as can...
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Chapter 12: Of Religion
...up the invisible agent is the same as “the Soule of man,” which appears in dreams and is like an apparition. Such apparitions are “nothing else but creatures of the Fancy”...
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Chapter 32: Of the Principles of CHRISTIAN POLITTIQUES
For one to say God spoke to them in a dream is only to say that they dreamed God spoke—it does not mean God has actually...
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For those who have never heard the voice of God, either through visions, dreams, or voice, can turn to Holy Scripture to know what they are supposed to obey....
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Chapter 34: Of the Signification of SPIRIT, ANGEL, and INSPIRATION in the Books of Holy Scripture
...a “Messenger,” and most often is a “Messenger of God,” who usually manifests in a dream or a vision. While it is not stated in scripture, it is generally thought that...
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A REVIEW, and CONCLUSION
...does not mean to say that God did not speak to Moses through visions or dreams. What Hobbes means is that God could not have spoken to Moses in a “Face...
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