Famous Thomas Hobbes Quotations

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"Leisure is the mother of Philosophy."
by Thomas Hobbes
"Laughter is nothing else but a sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly."
by Thomas Hobbes
"Force, and fraud, are in war the two cardinal virtues."
by Thomas Hobbes
"All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called 'Facts'. They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain."
by Thomas Hobbes
"Appetite, with an opinion of attaining, is called hope; the same, without such opinion, despair."
by Thomas Hobbes
"Appetite, with an opinion of attaining, is called hope the same, without such opinion, despair."
by Thomas Hobbes
"As a draft-animal is yoked in a wagon, even so the spirit is yoked in this body."
by Thomas Hobbes
"Desire to know why, and how - curiosity, which is a lust of the mind, that a perseverance of delight in the continued and indefatigable generation of knowledge - exceedeth the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure."
by Thomas Hobbes
"Fear of things invisible in the natural seed of that which everyone in himself calleth religion."
by Thomas Hobbes
"Humans are driven by a perpetual and restless desire of power."
by Thomas Hobbes
"It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law."
by Thomas Hobbes
"Man is distinguished, not only by his reason; but also by this singular passion from other animals... which is a lust of the mind, that by a perseverance of delight in the continual and indefatigable generation of knowledge, exceeds the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure."
by Thomas Hobbes
"Such truth as opposeth no man's profit nor pleasure is to all men welcome."
by Thomas Hobbes
"The life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
by Thomas Hobbes
"The privilege of absurdity to which no living creature is subject, but man only."
by Thomas Hobbes
"Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon with them, but they are the money of fools."
by Thomas Hobbes
"Words are the counters of wise men, and the money of fools"
by Thomas Hobbes
"The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man only."
by Thomas Hobbes
"A man's conscience and his judgment is the same thing; and as the judgment, so also the conscience, may be erroneous."
by Thomas Hobbes
"Desire to know why, and how -- curiosity, which is a lust of the mind, that a perseverance of delight in the continued and indefatigable generation of knowledge -- exceedeth the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure."
by Thomas Hobbes
"No mans error becomes his own Law; nor obliges him to persist in it."
by Thomas Hobbes
"He that is taken and put into prison or chains is not conquered, though overcome; for he is still an enemy."
by Thomas Hobbes
"In the state of nature profit is the measure of right."
by Thomas Hobbes
"For it is with the mysteries of our religion, as with wholesome pills for the sick, which swallowed whole, have the virtue to cure; but chewed, are for the most part cast up again without effect."
by Thomas Hobbes
"The secret thoughts of a man run over all things, holy, profane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame or blame."
by Thomas Hobbes
"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."
by Thomas Hobbes
"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."
by Thomas Hobbes
"Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them: but they are the money of fools."
by Thomas Hobbes
"Covenants, without the sword, are but words, and of no strength to secure a man at all. The bonds of words are too weak to bridle man's ambition, avarice, anger, and other passions, without the fear of some coercive power."
by Thomas Hobbes
"But his Lordship [tells] ... us that God is wholly here, and wholly there, and wholly every where; because he has no parts. I cannot comprehen..."
by Thomas Hobbes
"I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark."
by Thomas Hobbes
"The Scripture was written to shew unto men the kingdom of God; and to prepare their minds to become his obedient subjects; leaving the world, ..."
by Thomas Hobbes
"To say that God is an incorporeal substance, is to say in effect there is no God at all. What alleges he against it, but the School-divinity w..."
by Thomas Hobbes
"When the nature of the thing is incomprehensible, I can acquiesce in the Scripture: but when the signification of words is incomprehensible, I..."
by Thomas Hobbes


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