Best 216 quotes of Thomas Hobbes on MyQuotes

I shall be glad then to find a hole to creep out of the world.

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.

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.

It is many times with a fraudulent Design that men stick their corrupt Doctrine with the Cloves of other mens Wit.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Leisure can be one of the Mothers of Philosophy.

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

Leisure is the Mother of Philosophy.

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

Life is nasty, brutish, and short

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

Men are not therefore put to death, or punished for that their theft proceedeth from election; but because it was noxious and contrary to men's preservation, and the punishment conducing to the preservation of the rest, inasmuch as to punish those that do voluntary hurt, and none else, frameth and maketh men's wills such as men would have them.

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.

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?

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

Obligation is thraldom, and thraldom is hateful.

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

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

Passions unguided are for the most part mere madness.

Prophecy is many times the principal cause of the events foretold.

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

Prudence is but experience, which equal time equally bestows on all men in those things they equally apply themselves unto.

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

Science is the knowledge of Consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another: by which, out of that we can presently do, we know how to do something else when we will, or the like, another time

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

Seeing then that truth consisteth in the right ordering of names in our affirmations, a man that seeketh precise truth, had need to remember what every name he uses stands for; and to place it accordingly; or else he will find himself entangled in words, as a bird in lime-twigs; the more he struggles, the more belimed.

Setting themselves against reason, as often as reason is against them.

Silence is sometimes an argument of Consent.

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.

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.

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

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.

Such truth, as opposeth no man's profit, nor pleasure, is to all men welcome.

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

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.

That wee have of Geometry, which is the mother of all Naturall Science, wee are not indebted for it to the Schools.

The best men are the least suspicious of fraudulent purposes.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

The first author of speech was God himself, that instructed Adam how to name such creatures as He presented to his sight.

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.