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Thomas Hobbes quotes

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“in the nature of man, we find three principall 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.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“No mans error becomes his own Law; nor obliges him to persist in it.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“For True and False are attributes of Speech, not of things. And where Speech in not, there is neither Truth nor Falshood.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“And as in other things, so in men, not the seller, but the buyer determines the price.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“And Covenants, without the Sword, are but Words, and of no strength to secure a man at all.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“The first branch, of which Rule, containeth the first, and Fundamentall Law of Nature; which is, 'To seek Peace, and follow it.'” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“The source of every crime, is some defect of the understanding; or some errour in reasoning, or some sudden force of the passions.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“The Register of Knowledge Of Fact is called History.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“And Beasts that have Deliberation must necessarily also have Will.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“The Light of humane minds is Perspicuous Words, but by exact definitions first snuffed, and purged from ambiguity; Reason is the Pace; Encrease of Science, the Way; and the Benefit of mankind, the End.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“Time, and Industry, produce every day new knowledge.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“For 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: For they see their own wit at hand, and other...” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“And Credulity, because men love to be hearkened unto in company, disposeth them to lying: so that Ignorance it selfe without Malice, is able to make a man bothe to believe lyes, and tell them; and sometimes also to invent them.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“if all things were equally in all men, nothing would be prized.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“Force, and Fraud, are in warre the two Cardinall vertues.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“For 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 Feare, no more than without Sense.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“to accuse, requires less eloquence (such is man's nature) than to excuse; and condemnation, than absolution more resembles justice.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“When two, or more men, know of one and the same fact, they are said to be CONSCIOUS of it one to another; which is as much as to know it together.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“And when all the world is overchargd with Inhabitants, then the last remedy of all is Warre; which provideth for every man, by Victory, or Death.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“But this priviledge, is allayed by another; and that is, by the priviledge of Absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man onely.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“For what is the Heart, but a Spring; and the Nerves, but so many Strings; and the Joynts, but so many Wheeles, giving motion to the whole Body, such as was intended by the Artificer?” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“Anxiety for the future time, disposeth men to enquire into the causes of things: because the knowledge of them, maketh men the better able to order the present to their best advantage.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“The value of all things contracted for, is measured by the Appetite of the Contractors: and therefore the just value, is that which they be contented to give.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“For such Truth, as opposeth no man profit, nor pleasure, is to all men welcome.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“For all uniting of strength by private men, is, if for evill intent, unjust; if for intent unknown, dangerous to the Publique, and unjustly concealed.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“Naturally Every Man Has Right To Everything And because the condition of Man . . . is a condition of Warre of every one against every one; in which case every one is governed by his own Reason” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“For it can never be that Warre shall preserve life, and Peace destroy it.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“And this Feare of things invisible, is the naturall Seed of that, which every one in himself calleth Religion; and in them that worship, or feare that Power otherwise than they do, Superstition.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“For Prudence, is but Experience; which equall time, equally bestowes on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“Christian Kings may erre in deducing a Consequence, but who shall Judge?” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“When a man Reasoneth, hee does nothing els but conceive a summe totall, from Addition of parcels; or conceive a Remainder, from Substraction of one summe from another” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“things Past have a being in the Memory onely, but things To Come have no being at all; the Future being but a fiction of the mind, applying the sequels of actions Past, to the actions that are Present” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“If this superstitious fear of Spirits were taken away, and with it, Prognostiques from Dreams, false Prophecies, and many other things depending thereon, by which, crafty ambitious persons abuse the simple people, men would be much more fitted...” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“And in these foure things, Opinion of Ghosts, Ignorance of second causes, Devotion towards what men fear, and Taking of things Casuall for Prognostiques, consisteth the Naturall seed of Religion” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“where the publique and private interest are most closely united, there is the publique most advanced.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

Related topics

ignorance war religion force superstition knowledge reason justice truth passion life fear time future words peace crime law error fact

Related sources

Leviathan (35)