Thomas Hobbes Quotes

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

In the state of nature profit is the measure of right.

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

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

War consisteth not in battle only, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the will ...

When all the world is overcharged with inhabitants, then the last remedy of all is war, which provid...

That a man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth as for peace and defense of himself he s...

There is no such thing as perpetual tranquillity of mind while we live here; because life itself is ...

Curiosity is a lust of the mind.

Understanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech.

Curiosity is the lust of the mind.

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

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

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

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

Give an inch he'll take an ell.

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

For such is the nature of man, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or ...

The universe, the whole mass of things that are, is corporeal, that is to say, body, and hath the di...

As if it were Injustice to sell dearer than we buy; or to give more to a man than he merits. The val...

And because the condition of man . . . is a condition of war of every one against every one, in whic...

For, from the time that the Bishop of Rome had gotten to be acknowledged for bishop universal, by pr...

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

Felicity is a continual progress of the desire, from one object to another; the attaining of the for...

Fact be virtuous, or vicious, as Fortune pleaseth

The source of every crime, is some defect of the understanding; or some error in reasoning; or some ...

Hell is truth seen too late.

Another doctrine repugnant to civil society, is that whatsoever a man does against his conscience, i...

Silence is sometimes an argument of Consent

During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions...

I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after pow...

The disembodied spirit is immortal there is nothing of it that can grow old or die. But the embodied...

Therefor I doubt not but, if it had been a thing contrary to any man’s right of dominion, or to the ...

The right of nature... is the liberty each man hath to use his own power, as he will himself, for th...

Passions unguided are for the most part mere madness.

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

Such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more...

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

Leisure is the mother of philosophy.

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

Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.

It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law.

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

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

The obligation of subjects to the sovereign is understood to last as long, and no longer, than the p...

Words are the money of fools.