Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy. His 1651 book Leviathan established social contract theory, the foundation of most later Western political philosophy...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth5 April 1588
men library ifs
If I had read as much as other men I would have known no more than they.
desire fit capacity
... it is one thing to desire, another to be in capacity fit for what we desire.
men thinking may
Every man may think his own cause just till it be heard and judged.
god men together
The Pacts and Covenants, by which the parts of this Body Politique were at first made, set together, and united, resemble that Fiat, or the Let us make man, pronounced by God in the Creation.
love-is ideas needs
Love is a person's idea about his/her needs in other person what you are attracted to.
passion madness mere
Passions unguided are for the most part mere madness.
grief self envy
Emulation is grief arising from seeing one's self, exceeded or excelled by his concurrent, together with hope to equal or exceed him in time to come, by his own ability. But envy is the same grief joined with pleasure conceived in the imagination of some ill-fortune that may befall him.
men past expectations
By how much one man has more experience of things past, than another, by so much also he is more prudent, and his expectations the seldomer fail him.
passion men animal
Man is distinguished not only by his reason, but also by this singular passion, from all other animals.
men government social
Government is necessary, not because man is naturally bad... but because man is by nature more individualistic than social.
law opinion individual
How could a state be governed, or protected in its foreign relations if every individual remained free to obey or not to obey the law according to his private opinion.
law leviathan common
Where there is no common power, there is no law
men atheism purpose
The best men are the least suspicious of fraudulent purposes.
passion atheism different
Heresy is a word which, when it is used without passion, signifies a private opinion. So the different sects of the old philosophers, Academians, Peripatetics, Epicureans, Stoics, &c., were called heresies.