Thomas Hobbes Quotes

Biography: Thomas Hobbes is known for his influential work in political philosoph... more Biography: Thomas Hobbes is known for his influential work in political philosophy, particularly his book "Leviathan." Born in 1588 in England, Hobbes developed the social contract theory, arguing that a strong central authority is necessary to prevent the chaos of a state of nature. His ideas laid the groundwork for modern political science. less

"For it can never be that war shall preserve life, and peace destroy it.""A wise man should so write (though in words understood by all men), that wise men only should be able to commend him.""All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called 'Facts.' They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.""Desire to know why, and how, curiosity; such as is in no living creature but man.""Imagination and memory are but one thing, which for divers considerations hath divers names. ""Prudence is but experience, which equal time equally bestows on all men in those things they equally apply themselves unto. ""By covenant only, that is to say, by mutual contract, he becomes subject to civil laws.""To say that a man is merry and jovial, because he has a kindly heart towards others, is a vulgar error.""Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them; but they are the money of fools.""I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark.""The power of a man is his present means to obtain some future apparent good.""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.""The office of the sovereign, be it a monarch or an assembly, consisteth in the end for which he was entrusted with the sovereign power, namely the procuration of the safety of the people.""Liberty is the absence of all the impediments to action that are not contained in the nature and in the intrinsic quality of the agent.""Such truth as opposeth no man's profit nor pleasure is to all men welcome.""A man's conscience and his judgment is the same thing, and as the judgment, so also the conscience may be erroneous.""It is not wisdom but authority that makes a law""During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe they are in that condition which is called war and such a war as is of every man against every man""The passions that incline men to peace are fear of death desire of such things as are necessary to commodious living and a hope by their industry to obtain them""Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues"

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