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Men Quotes by Thomas Hobbes

105 Men quotes by Thomas Hobbes

All Men quotes Thomas Hobbes’s page

Thomas Hobbes argues that without a strong common power, men live in a constant state of war, always ready with arms and locks. He says a free person can act where his strength and wit allow, without being stopped. He also notes that every action starts a long chain of consequences.

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Men measure not only other men, but all other things, by themselves.

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For if all things were equally in all men, nothing would be prized.

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The best men are the least suspicious of fraudulent purposes.

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The passions of men are commonly more potent than their reason.

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Every man may think his own cause just till it be heard and judged.

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No man can be judge to his own cause.

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Words are the counters of wise men, but the money of fools.

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If I had read as much as other men I would have known no more than they.

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No man is bound by the words themselves, either to kill himselfe, or any other man.

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Ignorance of the law is no good excuse, where every man is bound to take notice of the laws to which he…

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When a man tells me God hath spoken in a dream, I know he dreamt that God spoke to him.

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If men are naturally in a state of war, why do they always carry arms and why do they have keys to…

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A wise man should so write (though in words understood by all men) that wise men only should be able to commend…

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When all the world is overcharged with inhabitants, then the last remedy of all is war, which provideth for every man, by…

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When two, or more men, know of one and the same fact, they are said to be CONSCIOUS of it one to…

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A free man is he that, in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do, is not…

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The characters of man's heart, blotted and confounded as they are with dissembling, lying, counterfeiting, and erroneous doctrines, are legible only to…

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The Imagination that is raised in man (or any other creature imbued with the faculty of imagining) by words, or other voluntary…

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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…

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To conclude, The Light of humane minds is Perspicuous Words, but by exact definitions first snuffed, and purged from ambiguity; Reason is…

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Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them: but they are the money of fools, that value them by…

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By how much one man has more experience of things past, than another, by so much also he is more prudent, and…

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Baptism is the sacrament of allegiance of them that are to be received into the Kingdom of God, that is to say,…

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True and false are attributes of speech not of things. And where speech is not, there is neither truth nor falsehood. Error…

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If God bestowed immortality on every man then when he made him, and he made many to whom he never purposed to…

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To this war of every man against every man, this also in consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right…

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By consequence, or train of thoughts, I understand that succession of one thought to another which is called, to distinguish it from…

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In sum, all actions and habits are to be esteemed good or evil by their causes and usefulness in reference to the…

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From the same it proceedeth,that men gives different names, to one and the same thing, from the difference of their own passions:…

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The most part of men, though they have the use of reasoning a little way, as in numbering to some degree; yet…

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For such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or…

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For if I should not believe all that is written by Historians, of the glorious acts of Alexander, or Caesar; I do…

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Prudence is but experience, which equal time equally bestows on all men in those things they equally apply themselves unto.

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The "value" or "worth" of a man is, as of all other things, his price; that is to say, so much as…

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Men looke not at the greatnesse of the evill past, but the greatnesse of the good to follow.

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Such truth, as opposeth no man's profit, nor pleasure, is to all men welcome.

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Corporations are may lesser commonwealths in the bowels of a greater, like worms in the entrails of a natural man.

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Competition of praise inclineth to a reverence of antiquity. For men contend with the living, not with the dead.

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Curiosity draws a man from consideration of the effect, to seek the cause.

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To understand this for sense it is not required that a man should be a geometrician or a logician, but that he…

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More by Thomas Hobbes

“Give an inch, he'll take an ell.”

Do not that to another, which thou wouldst not have done to thyself.

For it is with the mysteries of our religion, as with wholesome pills for the sick, which swallowed whole, have the virtue to cure;…

Intemperance is naturally punished with diseases; rashness, with mischance; injustice; with violence of enemies; pride, with ruin; cowardice, with oppression; and rebellion, with slaughter.

A man's conscience and his judgment is the same thing; and as the judgment, so also the conscience, may be erroneous.

He that is to govern a whole Nation , must read in himself, not this, or that particular man; but Mankind; which though it…

If men are naturally in a state of war, why do they always carry arms and why do they have keys to lock their…

Let a man (as most men do) rate themselves as the highest Value they can; yet their true Value is no more than it…

A free man is he that, in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do, is not hindered to…

“Covenants, without the sword, are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all.”

Fear of things invisible in the natural seed of that which everyone in himself calleth religion.

Because silver and gold have their value from the matter itself, they have first this privilege, that the value of them cannot be altered…

What reason is there that he which laboreth much, and, sparing the fruits of his labor, consumeth little, should be more charged than he…

The cause of Sense, is the External Body, or Object, which presseth the organ proper to each Sense, either immediately, as in theTaste and…

The characters of man's heart, blotted and confounded as they are with dissembling, lying, counterfeiting, and erroneous doctrines, are legible only to him that…