47 Quotes & Sayings By Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher considered one of the best defenders of absolutism and a predecessor to modern political theory. He had a major influence on later writers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, and Immanuel Kant. Hobbes is best known today for his work on political philosophy. His best known work is Leviathan (1651), which introduced the concept of the social contract.

For it can never be that war shall preserve life,...
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For it can never be that war shall preserve life, and peace destroy it. Thomas Hobbes
Hell is truth seen too late.
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Hell is truth seen too late. Thomas Hobbes
Felicity is a continual progress of the desire, from one...
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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. Thomas Hobbes
Now I am about to take my last voyage, a...
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Now I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark Thomas Hobbes
Curiosity is the lust of the mind.
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Curiosity is the lust of the mind. Thomas Hobbes
Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.
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Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues. Thomas Hobbes
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And because the condition of man . is a condition of war of every one against every one, in which case every one is governed by his own reason, and there is nothing he can make use of that may not be a help unto him in preserving his life against his enemies; it followeth that in such a condition every man has a right to every thing, even to one another's body. And therefore, as long as this natural right of every man to every thing endureth, there can be no security to any man, how strong or wise soever he be, of living out the time which nature ordinarily alloweth men to live. And consequently it is a precept, or general rule of reason: that every man ought to endeavour peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek and use all helps and advantages of war. The first branch of which rule containeth the first and fundamental law of nature, which is: to seek peace and follow it. The second, the sum of the right of nature, which is: by all means we can to defend ourselves. . Thomas Hobbes
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The first and fundamental law of Nature, which is, to seek peace and follow it. Thomas Hobbes
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For, from the time that the Bishop of Rome had gotten to be acknowledged for bishop universal, by pretence of succession to St. Peter, their whole hierarchy, or kingdom of darkness, may be compared not unfitly to the kingdom of fairies; that is, to the old wives' fables in England concerning ghosts and spirits, and the feats they play in the night. 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 Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof: for so did the papacy start up on a sudden out of the ruins of that heathen power. Thomas Hobbes
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Silence is sometimes an argument of Consent Thomas Hobbes
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The universe, the whole mass of things that are, is corporeal, that is to say, body, and hath the dimensions of magnitude, length, breadth and depth. Every part of the universe is ‘body’ and that which is not ‘body’ is no part of the universe, and because the universe is all, that which is no part of it is nothing, and consequently nowhere. Thomas Hobbes
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For such is the nature of man, 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 mens at a distance. Thomas Hobbes
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Another doctrine repugnant to civil society, is that whatsoever a man does against his conscience, is sin; and it dependeth on the presumption of making himself judge of good and evil. For a man's conscience and his judgement are the same thing, and as the judgement, so also the conscience may be erroneous. Thomas Hobbes
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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. Thomas Hobbes
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As if it were Injustice to sell dearer than we buy; or to give more to a man than he merits. 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
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I often observe the absurdity of dreams, but never dream of the absurdity of my waking thoughts. Thomas Hobbes
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Fact be virtuous, or vicious, as Fortune pleaseth Thomas Hobbes
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Therefor I doubt not but, if it had been a thing contrary to any man’s right of dominion, or to the interest of men that have dominion, ‘that the three angles of a triangle should be equal to two angles of a square, ’ that doctrine should have been, if not disputed, yet by the burning of all books of geometry suppressed, as far as he whom it concerned was able. Thomas Hobbes
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Now I am about to take my last voyage a great leap in the dark. Thomas Hobbes
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Faith is a gift of God which man can neither give nor take away by promise of rewards or menaces of torture. Thomas Hobbes
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Give an inch he'll take an ell. Thomas Hobbes
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Appetite with an opinion of attaining is called hope the same without such opinion despair. Thomas Hobbes
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Leisure is the mother of philosophy. Thomas Hobbes
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Passions unguided are for the most part mere madness. Thomas Hobbes
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If I had read as much as other men I should have known no more than they. Thomas Hobbes
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Curiosity is a lust of the mind. Thomas Hobbes
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Understanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech. Thomas Hobbes
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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. Thomas Hobbes
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The condition of man... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone. Thomas Hobbes
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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. Thomas Hobbes
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War consisteth not in battle only, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the will to contend by battle is sufficiently known. Thomas Hobbes
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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. Thomas Hobbes
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In the state of nature profit is the measure of right. Thomas Hobbes
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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. Thomas Hobbes
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Science is the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another. Thomas Hobbes
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The disembodied spirit is immortal there is nothing of it that can grow old or die. But the embodied spirit sees death on the horizon as soon as its day dawns. Thomas Hobbes
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I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death. Thomas Hobbes
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Fear of things invisible in the natural seed of that which everyone in himself calleth religion. Thomas Hobbes
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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. Thomas Hobbes
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Prudence is but experience, which equal time, equally bestows on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto. Thomas Hobbes
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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. Thomas Hobbes
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Such truth, as opposeth no man's profit, nor pleasure, is to all men welcome. Thomas Hobbes
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Words are the money of fools. Thomas Hobbes
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It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law. Thomas Hobbes
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That a man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth as for peace and defense of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men against himself. Thomas Hobbes
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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. Thomas Hobbes