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
secret body enough
For as to the strength of body, the weakest has strength enough to kill the strongest, either by secret machination or by confederacy with others that are in the same danger with himself
done thyself
Do not that to another, which thou wouldst not have done to thyself.
science reflection thinking
Whatsoever accidents Or qualities our sense make us think there be in the world, they are not there, but are seemings and apparitions only. The things that really are in the world without us, are those motions by which these seemings are caused. And this is the great deception of sense, which also is by sense to be corrected. For as sense telleth me, when I see directly, that the colour seemeth to be in the object; so also sense telleth me, when I see by reflection, that colour is not in the object.
men mathematical-logic mad
To understand this for sense it is not required that a man should be a geometrician or a logician, but that he should be mad.
power reputation
The reputation of power IS power.
law conscience
The law is the public conscience.
spiritual ignorance night
The Enemy has been here in the night of our natural ignorance, and sown the tares of spiritual errors.
men errors definitions
The errors of definitions multiply themselves according as the reckoning proceeds; and lead men into absurdities, which at last they see but cannot avoid, without reckoning anew from the beginning.
horizon dawn spirit
The disembodied spirit is immortal; there is nothing of it that can grow old or die. But the embodied spirit sees death on the horizon as soon as its day dawns.
ignorance men talking
Opinion of ghosts, ignorance of second causes, devotion to what men fear, and talking of things casual for prognostics, consisteth the natural seeds of religion
mean men goodness
The power of a man is his present means to obtain some future apparent good.
men thinking liberty
That a man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth as for peace and defense of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men against himself.
mistake law errors
No mans error becomes his own Law; nor obliges him to persist in it.
men two enemy
If any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies.