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Absurdity
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The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man only.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Books
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The praise of ancient authors proceeds not from the reverence of the dead, but from the competition and mutual envy of the living.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Caution
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Prudence is but experience, which equal time, equally bestows on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Conflict
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War consisteth not in battle only, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the will to contend by battle is sufficiently known.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Conscience
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A man's conscience and his judgment is the same thing; and as the judgment, so also the conscience, may be erroneous.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Curiosity
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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.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Food
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The flesh endures the storms of the present alone; the mind, those of the past and future as well as the present. Gluttony is a lust of the mind.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Glory
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Sudden glory is the passion which makes those grimaces called laughter.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Last Words
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I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Laughter
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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.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Mind, the
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There is no such thing as perpetual tranquility 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.
-Thomas Hobbes
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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.
-Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
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Mistakes
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No mans error becomes his own Law; nor obliges him to persist in it.
-Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, part 2, p. 237, 1950
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Pleasure
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Pleasure therefore, (or Delight,) is the appearance or sense of Good; and Molestation or Displeasure, the appearance or sense of Evil.
-Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ch. 6, 1651
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Prison
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He that is taken and put into prison or chains is not conquered, though overcome; for he is still an enemy.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Profit
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In the state of nature profit is the measure of right.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Religion
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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.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Rest, Leisure
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Leisure is the mother of Philosophy.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Science
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Science is the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Secrets
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The secret thoughts of a man run over all things, holy, profane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame or blame.
-Thomas Hobbes
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State
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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.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Understanding
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Understanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech.
-Thomas Hobbes
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War
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Force, and fraud, are in war the two cardinal virtues.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Wisdom
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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.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Words
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Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them: but they are the money of fools.
-Thomas Hobbes
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Books by and about Thomas Hobbes