Thomas Hobbes Quotes - Page 2

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

If I read as many books as most men do, I would be as dull-witted as they are.

Life is nasty, brutish, and short

Passions unguided are for the most part mere madness.

For there are very few so foolish who would not rather govern themselves than be governed by others.

and where men build on false grounds, the more they build, the greater is the ruine

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

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.

Obligation is thraldom, and thraldom is hateful.

Nature itself cannot err

Do not that to another, which thou wouldst not have done to thyself.

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

Leisure is the Mother of Philosophy.

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

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.

And as in other things, so in men, not the seller, but the buyer determines the Price.

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

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

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.

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

Covenants without swords are but words.

True and False are attributes of speech, not of things. And where speech is not, there is neither Truth nor Falsehood.

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

A man cannot lay down the right of resisting them that assault him by force, to take away his life.

The law is the public conscience.