Thomas Hobbes Quotes - Page 4

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

A Covenant not to defend myself from force, by force, is always void. For... no man can transfer or lay down his Right to save himself from Death.

So that every Crime is a sinne; but not every sinne a Crime.

As soon as a thought darts, I write it down.

Men measure not only other men, but all other things, by themselves.

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.

So easy are men to be drawn to believe any thing, from such men as have gotten credit with them; and can with gentleness and dexterity take hold of their fear and ignorance.

The Papacy is not other than the Ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof.

Reason is the Soul of the Law.

A free man is he that, in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do, is not hindered to do what he has a will to.

In a Democracy, look how many Demagogs that is how many powerful Orators there are with the people.

Fact be vertuous, or vicious, as Fortune pleaseth

Power as is really divided, and as dangerously to all purposes, by sharing with another an Indirect Power, as a Direct one.

The reputation of power IS power.

For it is not the shape, but their use, that makes them angels.

Every man may think his own cause just till it be heard and judged.

The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man only.

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

Understanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech.

The source of every crime, is some defect of the understanding; or some error in reasoning; or some sudden force of the passions. Defect in the understanding is ignorance; in reasoning, erroneous opinion.

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.

The "value" or "worth" of a man is, as of all other things, his price; that is to say, so much as would be given for the use of his power.

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.

Good and Evil are names that signify our appetites and aversions, which in different tempers, customs, and doctrines of men, are different: And diverse men differ not only in their judgment, on the senses of what is pleasant and unpleasant to the taste, smell, hearing, touch, and sight, but also of what is conformable, or disagreeable to Reason, in the actions of the common life. Nay, the same man, in diverse times, differs from himself, and one time praiseth, that is, calleth Good, what another time he dispraiseth, and calleth Evil.

Time, and Industry, produce everyday new knowledge.