Famous Quotes & Sayings

Thomas Hobbes Quotes & Sayings

Enjoy the top 100 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Thomas Hobbes.

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Famous Quotes By Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 290489

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 — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1244587

The opinion that any Monarch receiveth his Power by Covenant, that is to say on Condition, proceedeth from want of understanding this easie truth, that Covenants being but words, and breath, have no force to oblige, contain, constrain, or protect any man, but what it has from the publique Sword; that is, from the untyed hands of that Man, or Assembly of men that hath the Soveraignty, and whose actions are avouched by them all, and performed by the strength of them all, in him united. But when an Assembly of men is made Soveraigne; then no man imagineth any such Covenant to have past in the Institution; for no man is so dull as to say, for example, the People of Rome, made a Covenant with the Romans, to hold the Soveraignty on such or such conditions; which not performed, the Romans might lawfully depose the Roman People. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 544556

In the very shadows of doubt a thread of reason (so to speak) begins, by whose guidance we shall escape to the clearest light. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2070383

As in the presence of the Master, the Servants are equall, and without any honour at all; So are the Subjects, in the presence of the Soveraign. And though they shine some more, some lesse, when they are out of his sight; yet in his presence, they shine no more than the Starres in presence of the Sun. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 609533

It is manifest therefore that they who have sovereign power, are immediate rulers of the church under Christ, and all others but subordinate to them. If that were not, but kings should command one thing upon pain of death, and priests another upon pain of damnation, it would be impossible that peace and religion should stand together. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 452711

It is not easy to fall into any absurdity, unless it be by the length of an account; wherein he may perhaps forget what went before. For all men by nature reason alike, and well, when they have good principles. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 95100

Men looke not at the greatnesse of the evill past, but the greatnesse of the good to follow. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 676027

Passions unguided are for the most part mere madness. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1418451

That Wisedome is acquired, not by reading of Books, but of Men. Consequently whereunto, those persons, that for the most part can give no other proof of being wise, take great delight to shew what they think they have read in men, by uncharitable censures of one another behind their backs. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1957373

I often observe the absurdity of dreams, but never dream of the absurdity of my waking thoughts. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1866950

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. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 734317

When it happeneth that a man signifieth unto us two contradictory opinions whereof the one is clearly and directly signified, andthe other either drawn from that by consequence, or not known to be contradictory to it; then (when he is not present to explicate himself better) we are to take the former of his opinions; for that is clearly signified to be his, and directly, whereas the other might proceed from error in the deduction, or ignorance of the repugnancy. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2110582

Those men that are so remissly governed that they dare take up arms to defend or introduce an opinion, are still in war, and their condition not peace, but only a cessation of arms for fear of one another, and they live as it were in the precincts of battle continually. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2208701

Hell is truth seen too late. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2168609

Science [is] knowledge of the truth of Propositions and how things are called. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 256130

Competition of praise inclineth to a reverence of antiquity. For men contend with the living, not with the dead. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1229802

And Beasts that have Deliberation , must necessarily also have Will . — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1619804

Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them: but they are the money of fools, that value them by the authority of an Aristotle, a Cicero, or a Thomas, or any other doctor whatsoever, if but a man. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 381141

Ignorance of naturall causes disposeth a man to Credulity, so as to believe many times impossibilities: for such know nothing to the contrary, but that they may be true; being unable to detect the Impossibility. 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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 98506

Liberty, to define it, is nothing other than the absence of impediments to motion — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 990549

What reason is there that he which laboreth much, and, sparing the fruits of his labor, consumeth little, should be more charged than he that, living idly, getteth little and spendeth all he gets, seeing the one hath no more protection from the commonwealth than the other? — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1409296

Where there is no common power, there is no law — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 391828

Desire of praise disposeth to laudable actions. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 472393

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1993988

The praise of ancient authors proceeds not from the reverence of the dead, but from the competition and mutual envy of the living. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 397344

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1774500

The Interpretation of the Laws of Nature in a Common-wealth, dependeth not on the books of Moral Philosophy. The Authority of writers, without the Authority of the Commonwealth, maketh not their opinions Law, be they never so true. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 842667

From whence it happens, that they which trust to books, do as they that cast up many little sums into a greater, without considering whether those little sums were rightly cast up or not; and at last finding the error visible, and not mistrusting their first grounds, know not which way to clear themselves; but spend time in fluttering over their books, as birds that entering by the chimney, and finding themselves enclosed in a chamber, flutter at the false light of a glass window, for want of wit to consider which way they came in. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 419182

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 151279

The law is the public conscience. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1263717

There is more in Mersenne than in all the universities together. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2015237

Understanding is by the flame of the passions never enlightened, but dazzled. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1443733

Reason is the Soul of the Law. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1797779

It is in the laws of a commonwealth, as in the laws of gaming: Whatsoever the gamesters all agree on, is injustice to none of them. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 318092

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 947706

The first cause of Absurd conclusions I ascribe to the want of Method. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1814816

Give an inch, he'll take an ell. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1762180

Covenants without swords are but words. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1613970

The Scripture was written to shew unto men the kingdom of God; and to prepare their minds to become his obedient subjects; leavingthe world, and the Philosophy thereof, to the disputation of men, for the exercising of their natural Reason. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1736267

The science which teacheth arts and handicrafts is merely science for the gaining of a living; but the science which teacheth deliverance from worldly existence, is not that the true science? — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1584395

The errors of definitions multiply themselves according as the reckoning proceeds; and lead men into absurdities, which at last they see but cannot avoid, without reckoning anew from the beginning. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1666633

Scientia potentia est.

Knowledge is power. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1728154

Desire, to know why, and how, curiosity; such as is in no living creature but man: so that man is distinguished, not only by his reason; but also by this singular passion from other animals; in whom the appetite of food, and other pleasures of sense, by predominance, take away the care of knowing causes; which is a lust of the mind, that by a perseverance of delight in the continual and indefatigable generation of knowledge, exceedeth the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1767778

For it is with the mysteries of our religion, as with wholesome pills for the sick, which swallowed whole, have the virtue to cure; but chewed, are for the most part cast up again without effect. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1583911

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2267070

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1506217

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1789831

What is the heart but a spring, and the nerves but so many strings, and the joints but so many wheels, giving motion to the whole body? — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1810775

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. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1855479

Moral philosophy is nothing else but the science of what is good, and evil, in the conversation, and society of mankind. Good, and evil, are names that signify our appetites, and aversions; which in different tempers, customs, and doctrines of men, are different. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1929862

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2011355

When the nature of the thing is incomprehensible, I can acquiesce in the Scripture: but when the signification of words is incomprehensible, I cannot acquiesce in the authority of a Schoolman. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2028369

And if this be madness in the multitude, it is the same in every particular man. For as in the midst of the sea, though a man perceive no sound of that part of the water next him, yet he is well assured that part contributes as much to the roaring of the sea as any other part of the same quantity: so also, though we perceive no great unquietness in one or two men, yet we may be well assured that their singular passions are parts of the seditious roaring of a troubled nation. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2046226

The cause of Sense, is the External Body, or Object, which presseth the organ proper to each Sense, either immediately, as in theTaste and Touch; or mediately, as in Seeing, Hearing, and Smelling: which pressure, by the mediation of Nerves, and other strings, and membranes of the body, continued inwards to the Brain, and Heart, causeth there a resistance, or counter- pressure, or endeavor of the heart, to deliver it self: which endeavor because Outward, seemeth to be some matter without. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2056288

Fact be virtuous, or vicious, as Fortune pleaseth — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2060294

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2086294

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2105840

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. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2142164

The secret thoughts of a man run over all things, holy, profane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame or blame. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2147020

Nature (the Art whereby God hath made and governs the World) is by the Art of man, as in many other things, so in this also imitated, that it can make an Artificial Animal. For seeing life is but a motion of Limbs, the beginning whereof is in some principal part within; why may we not say, that all Automata (Engines that move themselves by springs and wheels as doth a watch) have an artificial life? — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2211962

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. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 2241233

The condition of man ... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 80459

Man is distinguished not only by his reason, but also by this singular passion, from all other animals. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 341526

He that is to govern a whole Nation, must read in himselfe, not this, or that particular man; but Man-kind; — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 815014

The oath adds nothing to the obligation. For a covenant, if lawful, binds in the sight of God, without the oath, as much as with it; if unlawful, bindeth not at all, though it be confirmed with an oath. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 788915

For it can never be that war shall preserve life, and peace destroy it. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 730628

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 686540

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 681804

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 603819

The law is more easily understood by few than many words. For all words are subject to ambiguity, and therefore multiplication of words in the body of the law is multiplication of ambiguity. Besides, it seems to imply (by too much diligence) that whosoever can evade the words is without the compass of the law. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 549156

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. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 457974

No man's error becomes his own Law; nor obliges him to persist in it. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 416297

As a draft-animal is yoked in a wagon, even so the spirit is yoked in this body — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 858606

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? — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 336817

Corporations are may lesser commonwealths in the bowels of a greater, like worms in the entrails of a natural man. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 294594

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 247753

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 223164

The Enemy has been here in the night of our natural ignorance, and sown the tares of spiritual errors. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 221299

Unnecessary laws are not good laws, but traps for money. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 137852

Leisure is the mother of Philosophy — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 89802

A private man has always the liberty (because thought is free) to believe or not believe in his heart those acts that have been given out for miracles, according as he shall see what benefits can accrue by men's belief, to those that pretend, or countenance them, and thereby conjecture whether they be miracles or lies. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 89577

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1253875

And for Incoherent Speech, it was amongst the Gentiles taken for one sort of Prophecy, because the Prophets of their Oracles, intoxicated with a spirit, or vapor from the cave of the Pythian Oracle at Delphi, were for a time really mad, and spake like mad-men; of whoose loose words a sense might be made to fit any event, in such sort, as all bodies are said to be made of Materia prima . — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1455829

To be seduced by Orators, as a Monarch by Flatterers. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1442247

He that has most experience [is] so much more prudent than he that is new, as not to be equalled by any advantage of natural and extemporary wit- though many young men think the contrary. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1422041

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1398682

By this we may understand, there be two sorts of knowledge, whereof the one is nothing else but sense, or knowledge original (as I have said at the beginning of the second chapter), and remembrance of the same; the other is called science or knowledge of the truth of propositions, and how things are called, and is derived from understanding. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1397689

Of all Discourse , governed by desire of Knowledge, there is at last an End , either by attaining, or by giving over. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1394581

And from this followeth another law: that such things as cannot
be divided be enjoyed in common, if it can be; and if the quantity
of the thing permit, without stint; otherwise proportionably to the
number of them that have right. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1314321

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. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1277578

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1491083

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1202615

Sudden glory is the passion which maketh those grimaces called laughter. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1189454

But all this language gotten, and augmented by Adam and his posterity, was again lost at the tower of Babel , when by the hand of God, every man was stricken for his rebellion, with an oblivion of his former language. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1184735

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1107817

Understanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1070873

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 then they are for civill Obedience. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1016063

For as Prometheus, (which interpreted, is, The Prudent Man,) was bound to the hill Caucasus, a place of large prospect, where, an Eagle feeding on his liver, devoured in the day, as much as was repaired in the night: So that man, which looks too far before him, in the care of future time, hath his heart all the day long, gnawed on by Fear of death, poverty, or other calamity; and has no repose, nor pause of his anxiety, but in sleep. — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 1000079

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

Thomas Hobbes Quotes 891991

Respice finem; that is to say, in all your actions, look often upon what you would have, as the thing that directs all your thoughts in the way to attain it. — Thomas Hobbes