Thomas hobbes quotes

Humans are driven by a perpetual and restless desire of power.

If I had read as much as other men I would have known no more than they.

He that is taken and put into prison or chains is not conquered, though overcome; for he is still an enemy.

Intemperance is naturally punished with diseases; rashness, with mischance; injustice; with violence of enemies; pride, with ruin; cowardice, with oppression; and rebellion, with slaughter.

The reputation of power IS power.

Life in the state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Obligation is thraldom, and thraldom is hateful.

The obligation of subjects to the sovereign is understood to last as long, and no longer, than the power lasteth by which he is able to protect them.

Felicity is a continual progress of the desire from one object to another, the attaining of the former being still but the way to the latter.

The end of knowledge is power ... the scope of all speculation is the performing of some action or thing to be done.

Power as is really divided, and as dangerously to all purposes, by sharing with another an Indirect Power, as a Direct one.

Desire of praise disposeth to laudable actions.

The condition of man... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.

The Papacy is not other than the Ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof.

For if all things were equally in all men, nothing would be prized.

Time, and Industry, produce everyday new knowledge.

The original of all great and lasting societies consisted not in the mutual good will men had toward each other, but in the mutual fear they had of each other.

There is no action of man in this life that is not the beginning of so long a chain of consequences as no human providence is high enough to give a man a prospect in the end. And in this chain, there are linked together both pleasing and unpleasing events in such manner as he that will do anything for his pleasure must engage himself to suffer all the pains annexed to it.

Covenants without swords are but words.

Do not that to another, which thou wouldst not have done to thyself.

Wisdom, properly so called, is nothing else but this: the perfect knowledge of the truth in all matters whatsoever.

Because silver and gold have their value from the matter itself, they have first this privilege, that the value of them cannot be altered by the power of one, nor of a few commonwealths, as being a common measure of the commodities of all places. But base money may easily be enhanced or abased.

Nature itself cannot err

True and False are attributes of speech, not of things. And where speech is not, there is neither Truth nor Falsehood.

All men, among themselves, are by nature equal. The inequality we now discern hath its spring from the civil law.

Science is the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another.

Let a man (as most men do) rate themselves as the highest Value they can; yet their true Value is no more than it is esteemed by others.

The first and fundamental law of Nature, which is, to seek peace and follow it.

For there are very few so foolish who would not rather govern themselves than be governed by others.

Passions unguided are for the most part mere madness.

A covenant not to defend myself from force by force is always void. For ... no man can transfer or lay down his Right to save himself. For the right men have by Nature to protect themselves, when none else can protect them, can by no Covenant be relinquished. ... [The right] to defend ourselves [is the] summe of the Right of Nature.

Leisure is the Mother of Philosophy.

No arts, no letters - no society.

Men measure not only other men, but all other things, by themselves.

There is no such thing as perpetual tranquillity of mind while we live here; because life itself is but motion, and can never be without desire, nor without fear, no more than without sense.

In a Democracy, look how many Demagogs that is how many powerful Orators there are with the people.

The Present only has a being in Nature; things Past have a being in the Memory only, but things to come have no being at all; the Future but a fiction of the mind.

Love is a person's idea about his/her needs in other person what you are attracted to.

Every man may think his own cause just till it be heard and judged.

Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of war, where every man is enemy to every man, the same consequent to the time wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them withal. In such condition there is no place for industry... no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

It's my turn, to take a leap into the darkness!

No Discourse whatsoever, can End in absolute Knowledge of Fact.

Subjects have no greater liberty in a popular than in a monarchial state. That which deceives them is the equal participation of command.

Unnecessary laws are not good laws, but traps for money.

Scientia potentia est, sed parva; quia scientia egregia rara est, nec proinde apparens nisi paucissimis, et in paucis rebus. Scientiae enim ea natura est, ut esse intelligi non possit, nisi ab illis qui sunt scientia praediti.

The passions of men are commonly more potent than their reason.

To say God spake or appeared as he is in his own nature, is to deny his Infiniteness, Invisibility, Incomprehensibility.

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

The object of man's desire is not to enjoy once only, and for one instant of time; but to assure for ever, the way of his future desires.

Laughter is nothing else but sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly.

Understanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech.

Religions are like pills, which must be swallowed whole without chewing.

All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called 'Facts'. They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.

During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man.

The world is governed by opinion.

and where men build on false grounds, the more they build, the greater is the ruine

A man's conscience and his judgment is the same thing; and as the judgment, so also the conscience, may be erroneous.

True and false are attributes of speech not of things. And where speech is not, there is neither truth nor falsehood. Error theremay be, as when we expect that which shall not be; or suspect what has not been: but in neither case can a man be charged with untruth.

If any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies.

I think, therefore matter is capable of thinking.

From what cause the rite of baptism first proceeded is not expressed formally in the scripture, but it may be probably thought to be an imitation of the law of Moses concerning leprosy, wherein the leprous man was commanded to be kept out of the camp of Israel for a certain time, after which time being judged by the priest to be clean, he was admitted into the camp after a solemn washing. And this may therefore be a type of the washing in baptism, wherein such men as are cleansed of the leprosy of Sin by Faith, are received into the church with the solemnity of baptism.

Leisure can be one of the Mothers of Philosophy.

Curiosity is the lust of the mind.

They that are discontented under monarchy, call it tyranny; and they that are displeased with aristocracy, call it oligarchy: so also, they which find themselves grieved under a democracy, call it anarchy, which signifies the want of government; and yet I think no man believes, that want of government, is any new kind of government.

... it is one thing to desire, another to be in capacity fit for what we desire.

Leisure is the mother of philosophy; and commonwealth, the mother of peace and leisure.

It's not the pace of life I mind. It's the sudden stop at the end.

A man cannot lay down the right of resisting them that assault him by force, to take away his life.

A free man is he that, in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do, is not hindered to do what he has a will to.

Baptism is the sacrament of allegiance of them that are to be received into the Kingdom of God, that is to say, into Eternal life, that is to say, to Remission of Sin. For as Eternal life was lost by the committing, so it is recovered by the remitting of men's sins.

Fear of things invisible is the natural seed of that which everyone in himself calleth religion.

The best men are the least suspicious of fraudulent purposes.

It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law

Life is nasty, brutish, and short

And as in other things, so in men, not the seller, but the buyer determines the Price.

Appetite, with an opinion of attaining, is called hope; the same, without such opinion, despair.

Immortality is a belief grounded upon other men's sayings, that they knew it supernaturally; or that they knew those who knew them that knew others that knew it supernaturally.

Reason is the Soul of the Law.

So that in the nature of man, we find three principal causes of quarrel. First, competition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly, glory. The first maketh men invade for gain; the second, for safety; and the third, for reputation. The first use violence, to make themselves masters of other men's persons, wives, children, and cattle; the second, to defend them; the third, for trifles, as a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other sign of undervalue, either direct in their persons or by reflection in their kindred, their friends, their nation, their profession, or their name.

For if I should not believe all that is written by Historians, of the glorious acts of Alexander, or Caesar; I do not think the Ghost of Alexander, or Caesar, had any just cause to be offended; or any body else, but the Historian. If Livy say the Gods made once a Cow speak, and we believe it not; we distrust not God therein, but Livy. So that it is evident, that whatsoever we believe, upon no other reason, then what is drawn from authority of men only, and their writings; whether they be sent from God or not, is Faith in men only.

When all the world is overcharged with inhabitants, then the last remedy of all is war, which provideth for every man, by victory or death.

To be seduced by Orators, as a Monarch by Flatterers.

So that in the first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind a perpetual and restless desire of Power after power, that ceaseth only in Death. And the cause of this is not always that a man hopes for a more intensive delight than he has already attained to, or that he cannot be content with a moderate power: but because he cannot assure the power and means to live well, which he hath present, without the acquisition of more.

Prudence is a presumption of the future, contracted from the experience of time past.

Curiosity draws a man from consideration of the effect, to seek the cause.

The flesh endures the storms of the present alone; the mind, those of the past and future as well as the present. Gluttony is a lust of the mind.

The law is the public conscience.

Words are the counters of wise men, but the money of fools.

Such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves.

Government is necessary, not because man is naturally bad... but because man is by nature more individualistic than social.

Opinion of ghosts, ignorance of second causes, devotion to what men fear, and talking of things casual for prognostics, consisteth the natural seeds of religion

The Register of Knowledge of Fact is called History .

If men are naturally in a state of war, why do they always carry arms and why do they have keys to lock their doors?

I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.

How could a state be governed, or protected in its foreign relations if every individual remained free to obey or not to obey the law according to his private opinion.

A democracy is no more than an aristocracy of orators. The people are so readily moved by demagogues that control must be exercised by the government over speech and press.

Where there is no common power, there is no law

Ignorance of the law is no good excuse, where every man is bound to take notice of the laws to which he is subject.

The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man only.

Faith is a gift of God, which man can neither give nor take away by promise of rewards or menace of torture.

For it is not the shape, but their use, that makes them angels.

It is fairer to tax people on what they extract from the economy, as roughly measured by their consumption, than to tax them on what they produce for the economy, as roughly measured by their income.

If I read as many books as most men do, I would be as dull-witted as they are.

The "value" or "worth" of a man is, as of all other things, his price; that is to say, so much as would be given for the use of his power.

The power of a man is his present means to obtain some future apparent good.

Emulation is grief arising from seeing one's self, exceeded or excelled by his concurrent, together with hope to equal or exceed him in time to come, by his own ability. But envy is the same grief joined with pleasure conceived in the imagination of some ill-fortune that may befall him.

The right of nature... is the liberty each man hath to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature; that is to say, of his own life.

So easy are men to be drawn to believe any thing, from such men as have gotten credit with them; and can with gentleness and dexterity take hold of their fear and ignorance.

Fear of power invisible, feigned by the mind or imagined from tales publicly allowed, is religion; not allowed, superstition.

Geometry is the only science that it hath pleased God hitherto to bestow on mankind.

Thoughts are to the Desires as Scouts and Spies, to range abroad, and find the way to the things Desired.

In sum, all actions and habits are to be esteemed good or evil by their causes and usefulness in reference to the commonwealth, and not by their mediocrity, nor by their being commended. For several men praise several customs, and, contrarily, what one calls vice, another calls virtue, as their present affections lead them.

So that every Crime is a sinne; but not every sinne a Crime.

Silence is sometimes an argument of Consent.

To understand this for sense it is not required that a man should be a geometrician or a logician, but that he should be mad.

If nobody makes you do it, it counts as fun.

There is no such thing as perpetual tranquility of mind while we live here.

To this war of every man against every man, this also in consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law, where no law, no injustice. Force, and fraud, are in war the cardinal virtues.

Hell is Truth Seen Too Late.

I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark.

As soon as a thought darts, I write it down.

Good and Evil are names that signify our appetites and aversions, which in different tempers, customs, and doctrines of men, are different: And diverse men differ not only in their judgment, on the senses of what is pleasant and unpleasant to the taste, smell, hearing, touch, and sight, but also of what is conformable, or disagreeable to Reason, in the actions of the common life. Nay, the same man, in diverse times, differs from himself, and one time praiseth, that is, calleth Good, what another time he dispraiseth, and calleth Evil.

And seeing every man is presumed to do all things in order to his own benefit, no man is a fit Arbitrator in his own cause

Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.

No man can be judge to his own cause.