66+ Philosophical Thomas Hobbes Quotes On Nature And Social Contract
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"In the state of nature profit is the measure of right” - as said by Thomas Hobbes, there are many readers who like to read books that are related to human nature and social contract.
Reading books helps you in getting more knowledge about different aspects. Books are known as a source of information and knowledge.
As Thomas Hobbes’s legacy turns a year older, there are many quotes that he has written on nature and social contract. We think you might enjoy our collection of Thomas Hobbes quotes.
The simple joy of reading a book is still the same for the book lovers. If you are someone who loves reading nature and social contract books, then here are some of the great quotes for book lovers like you. Here we have a collection of Thomas Hobbes quotes for you to enjoy.
For more, check out [Locke quotes] and Wittgenstein quotes.
Best Thomas Hobbes Quotes
Reading a book is a hobby for many people. There are many great authors who made sure that we enjoy reading books according to our choice and interest. If you like philosophy, you are sure to enjoy these Hobbes quotes and sayings. Look at these quotes by the renowned philosopher, Thomas Hobbes.
1. “All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called ‘Facts’. They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.”
- Thomas Hobbes
2. "Understanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech."
- Thomas Hobbes
3. “Curiosity is the lust of the mind.”
- Thomas Hobbes
4. “The source of every crime is some defect of the understanding; or some error in reasoning; or some sudden force of the passions. Defect in the understanding is ignorance; in reasoning, erroneous opinion.”
- Thomas Hobbes
5. "It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law."
- Thomas Hobbes
6. “The object of man's desire is not to enjoy once only, and for one instant of time; but to assure forever, the way of his future desires.”
- Thomas Hobbes
7. “Science is the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another.”
- Thomas Hobbes
8. "Words are the money of fools."
- Thomas Hobbes
9. "Where there is no common power, there is no law."
- Thomas Hobbes
10. "Laughter is nothing else but sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminence in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own former self."
- Thomas Hobbes
111. "They that approve a private opinion, call it opinion; but they that mislike it, heresy: and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion."
- Thomas Hobbes
Quotes On Human Nature By Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher and also considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Below mentioned are some Thomas Hobbes famous quotes on human nature. Read these quotes to better understand human nature.
12. "Such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be wittier, or more eloquent, or more learned, yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves."
- Thomas Hobbes
13. “The first and fundamental law of Nature, which is, to seek peace and follow it.”
- Thomas Hobbes
14. "All men, among themselves, are by nature equal. The inequality we now discern hath its spring from the civil law."
- Thomas Hobbes
15. "Life in the state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."
- Thomas Hobbes
16. "Government is necessary, not because man is bad but because man is by nature more individualistic than social."
- Thomas Hobbes
17. "In the state of nature profit is the measure of right."
- Thomas Hobbes
18. "The right of nature is the liberty each man hath to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature, that is to say, of his own life."
- Thomas Hobbes
19. "Not believing in force is the same as not believing in gravitation."
- Thomas Hobbes
Social Contract Quotes By Thomas Hobbes
He developed a theory which defines a contract as ‘the mutual transferring of rights.’ In the state of nature, everyone has the right to everything and there are no limits to the rights of natural liberty. Given below are some of the Thomas Hobbes quotes on Social Contract.
20. "That a man be willing, when others are so too, as far north 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."
- Thomas Hobbes
21. "A man cannot lay down the right of resisting them that assault him by force, to take away his life."
- Thomas Hobbes
22. "During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war, and such a war, as if of every man, against every man."
- Thomas Hobbes
23. "Fear and I both were twins."
- Thomas Hobbes
24. "Hell is truth seen too late."
- Thomas Hobbes
25. "The condition of Man is a condition of war of everyone against everyone."
- Thomas Hobbes
26. "He that is to govern a whole nation, must read in himself, not this, or that particular man, but man-kind."
- Thomas Hobbes
27. "The power of a man is his present means to obtain some future apparent good."
- Thomas Hobbes
28. "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
29. "Leisure is the Mother of Philosophy."
- Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes 'Leviathan' Quotes
Throughout his life, he believed that the only true and correct form of government was the absolute monarchy. Here are some of Thomas Hobbes 'Leviathan' quotes.
30. "For such is the nature of man, 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: For they see their own wit at hand, and other mens at a distance."
― Thomas Hobbes
31.
"But the most noble and profitable invention of all other was that of speech, consisting of names or apellations, and their connection; whereby men register their thoughts, recall them when they are past, and also declare them one to another for mutual utility and conversation; without which there had been amongst men neither Commonwealth, nor society, nor contract, nor peace, no more than amongst lions, bears, and wolves."
- Thomas Hobbes
32. “For it can never be that war shall preserve life, and peace destroy it.”
- Thomas Hobbes
33. "The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject but man only."
- Thomas Hobbes
34. "Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues."
- Thomas Hobbes
35. "They that approve a private opinion, call it opinion; but they that mislike it, heresy: and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion."
- Thomas Hobbes
36. "A man's conscience and his judgment are the same thing; and as the judgment, so also the conscience, may be erroneous."
- Thomas Hobbes
37. "Science is the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another."
- Thomas Hobbes
38. "The secret thoughts of a man run over all things, holy, profane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame or blame."
- Thomas Hobbes
39. "Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon with them, but they are the money of fools."
- Thomas Hobbes
40. "Now I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark.’’
- Thomas Hobbes
41. "It’s not the pace of life I mind. It’s sudden stop at the end.’’
- Thomas Hobbes
42. "If men are naturally in a state of war, why do they always carry arms and why do they have keys to lock their doors?’’
- Thomas Hobbes
43. "As a draft-animal is yoked in a wagon, even so the spirit is yoked in this body.’’
- Thomas Hobbes
44. "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 mind.’’
- Thomas Hobbes
45. "Ambition, and covetousness are passions that are perpetually incumbent and pressing."
- Thomas Hobbes
46. "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
Famous Thomas Hobbes State Of Nature Quotes
Thomas Hobbes philosophies talk about things like motion to the whole, ceaseth only in death, face of the Earth, knowledge of the face, the inclination of all mankind. Given below are some of the philosophical quotes by Thomas Hobbes.
47. "The oath adds nothing to the obligation. For a covenant, if lawful, binds in the sight of God, without the oath, as much as with it; if unlawful, bindeth not at all, though it be confirmed with an oath."
- Thomas Hobbes
48. “The world is governed by opinion.”
- Thomas Hobbes
49. “Such truth, as opposeth no man's profit, nor pleasure, is to all men welcome.”
- Thomas Hobbes
50. "Humans are driven by a perpetual and restless desire of power."
- Thomas Hobbes
51. "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.’’
- Thomas Hobbes
52. "He that is taken and put into prison or chains is not conquered, though overcome; for he is still an enemy."
- Thomas Hobbes
53. "No man's error becomes his own Law; nor obliges him to persist in it."
- Thomas Hobbes
54. "Scientia potentia est. Knowledge is power."
- Thomas Hobbes
55. "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
56. "Sudden glory is the passion which maketh those grimaces called laughter.’’
- Thomas Hobbes
57. "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
58. "Prudence is but experience, which equal time, equally bestows on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto."
- Thomas Hobbes
59. "For to accuse requires less eloquence, such is man's nature, than to excuse; and condemnation, than absolution, more resembles justice."
- Thomas Hobbes
60. "In such condition there is no place for industry... no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death"
- Thomas Hobbes
61. "When all the world is overcharged with inhabitants, then the last remedy of all is war, which provideth for every man, by victory or death."
- Thomas Hobbes
62. "Covenants, without the sword, are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all."
- Thomas Hobbes
63. "It is many times with a fraudulent Design that men stick their corrupt Doctrine with the Cloves of other mens Wit."
- Thomas Hobbes
64. "Give an inch, he'll take an ell."
- Thomas Hobbes
65. “The first branch of which Rule, containeth the first and fundamental law of Nature, which is, to seek peace and follow it.”
- Thomas Hobbes
66. "I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death."
- Thomas Hobbes
67. "Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of war, where every man is enemy to every man, the same consequent to the time wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them withal."
- Thomas Hobbes
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Thomas Hobbes Quotes then why not take a look at Kant quotes, or Will Durant quotes.
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Bachelor of Arts Hons specializing in Modern Languages (French and Spanish)
Monisha KochharBachelor of Arts Hons specializing in Modern Languages (French and Spanish)
A Modern Languages graduate from the University College London, Monisha with a passion for travel and exploring different cultures. She is fluent in French and Spanish and is currently learning Hindi. Monisha enjoys discovering new foods and is an avid sports fan, following soccer and Formula 1. In her spare time, she enjoys playing tennis and watching TV shows.
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