Thomas Hobbes Quotes

Government is necessary, not because man is naturally bad... but because man is by nature more individualistic than social.

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

Humans are driven by a perpetual and restless desire of power.

A democracy is no more than an aristocracy of orators. The people are so readily moved by demagogues that control must be exercised by the government over speech and press.

How could a state be governed, or protected in its foreign relations if every individual remained free to obey or not to obey the law according to his private opinion.

Hell is Truth Seen Too Late.

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

It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law

The original of all great and lasting societies consisted not in the mutual good will men had toward each other, but in the mutual fear they had of each other.

Unnecessary laws are not good laws, but traps for money.

If nobody makes you do it, it counts as fun.

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

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.

Where there is no common power, there is no law

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

The passions of men are commonly more potent than their reason.

Curiosity is the lust of the mind.

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

For if all things were equally in all men, nothing would be prized.

Silence is sometimes an argument of Consent.

To this war of every man against every man, this also in consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law, where no law, no injustice. Force, and fraud, are in war the cardinal virtues.

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.

The world is governed by opinion.

Words are the counters of wise men, but the money of fools.

The best men are the least suspicious of fraudulent purposes.