On natural logic and speech habits

Poor, arid, and, in appearance, deformed

I am not ignorant how hard a thing it is to weed out of men’s minds such inveterate opinions as have taken root there, and been confirmed in them by the authority of most eloquent writers; especially seeing true (that is, accurate) Philosophy professedly rejects not only the paint and false colours of language, but even the very ornaments and graces of the same; and the first grounds of all science are not only not beautiful, but poor, arid, and, in appearance, deformed.

Though I am at a loss for words to explain myself, I don’t believe for a minute that my thoughts are limited or warped by the boundaries of language. And I do not believe that true philosophy and language are antithetical.

The above quote comes from Hobbes, of course– the man who championed Thucydides at the expense of Herodotus. Because, you know, Herodotus made shit up. While Thucydides, like a fly on the wall, faithfully recorded every rhetorical flourish of history’s great men.