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Thomas Hobbes Quotes

Philosopher

Thomas Hobbes, a British philosopher, politician, historian, economist, and writer, was born on April 5, 1588, in Wiltshire, and died on December 4, 1679, in Oxford, England. Hobbes is considered one of the most important philosophers of the 17th century, known for his profound analysis of the state, society, and human behavior.

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All Men Leviathan Ifs May Law Reason Causes Desire Mind Opinion War Body Every Man Atheism Common Firsts Liberty Passion Positive Atheism God

Famous Thomas Hobbes Quotes

“The law is more easily understood by few than many words. For all words are subject to ambiguity, and therefore multiplication of words in the body of the law is multiplication of ambiguity. Besides, it seems to imply (by too much diligence) that whosoever can evade the words is without the compass of the law.”

Body Seems Law Too Much Subjects Understood Compass Ambiguity Diligence Multiplication

Book:Leviathan

Source: Leviathan

“Nature hath made men so equal in the faculties of body and mind, as that though there be found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body, or of quicker mind than another, yet when all is reckoned together, the difference between man and man is not so considerable as that one man can thereupon claim to himself any benefit to which another may not pretend as well as he.”

Men Mind Wells May Made Sometimes Body Together Found Differences Equal Benefits Claims Stronger Faculty One Man Mind And Body Leviathan

Book:Leviathan

Source: Leviathan

“And for Incoherent Speech, it was amongst the Gentiles taken for one sort of Prophecy, because the Prophets of their Oracles, intoxicated with a spirit, or vapor from the cave of the Pythian Oracle at Delphi, were for a time really mad, and spake like mad-men; of whoose loose words a sense might be made to fit any event, in such sort, as all bodies are said to be made of Materia prima .”

Men Made Said Body Might Spirit Taken Events Fit Speech Mad Prophet Prophecy Caves Mad Men Oracles Intoxicated Vapor Gentiles Delphi

Book:Leviathan

Source: Leviathan

“And because the condition of Man, (as hath been declared in the precedent Chapter) is a condition of Warre of every one against everyone; in which case every one is governed by his own Reason; and there is nothing he can make use of, that may not be a help unto him, in preserving his life against his enemyes; It followeth, that in such a condition, every man has a Right to every thing; even to one anothers body.”

Men May Reason Helping Use Body Cases Conditions Every Man Chapters Precedent

Author:Thomas Hobbes

“For naturall Bloud is in like manner made of the fruits of the Earth; and circulating, nourisheth by the way, every Member of the Body of Man.”

Men Way Made Body Earth Members Fruit

Book:Leviathan: Top 100 Classic Novels

Source: Leviathan: Top 100 Classic Novels

“For if I should not believe all that is written by Historians, of the glorious acts of Alexander, or Caesar; I do not think the Ghost of Alexander, or Caesar, had any just cause to be offended; or any body else, but the Historian. If Livy say the Gods made once a Cow speak, and we believe it not; we distrust not God therein, but Livy. So that it is evident, that whatsoever we believe, upon no other reason, then what is drawn from authority of men only, and their writings; whether they be sent from God or not, is Faith in men only.”

Source: Hobbes: Leviathan: Revised student edition

“The cause of Sense, is the External Body, or Object, which presseth the organ proper to each Sense, either immediately, as in theTaste and Touch; or mediately, as in Seeing, Hearing, and Smelling: which pressure, by the mediation of Nerves, and other strings, and membranes of the body, continued inwards to the Brain, and Heart, causeth there a resistance, or counter- pressure, or endeavor of the heart, to deliver it self: which endeavor because Outward, seemeth to be some matter without.”

Heart Self Matter Body Causes Nature Brain Seeing Objects Pressure Hearing Resistance Human Life Strings Nerves Endeavor Organs Mediation Heart And Brain Membranes

Book:Leviathan

Source: Leviathan

“Can it then be doubted, but that God, who is infinitely fine Spirit, and withal intelligent, can make and change all species and kind of body as he pleaseth? But I dare not say, that this is the way by which God Almighty worketh, because it is past my apprehension: yet it serves very well to demonstrate, that the omnipotence of God implieth no contradiction.”

Way Wells Kind God Body Past Spirit Fine Intelligent Species Dare Contradiction Almighty Doubted Apprehension Omnipotence

Book:Leviathan, Parts I and II - Revised Edition

Source: Leviathan, Parts I and II - Revised Edition

“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.”

Men Firsts Made God Body Government Together United Creation Covenant Pact

Book:Leviathan

Source: Leviathan

“Corporations are "worms in the body politic"”

Body Corporations Worms

Author:Thomas Hobbes

“As a draft-animal is yoked in a wagon, even so the spirit is yoked in this body”

Body Spirit Animal Wagons

Author:Thomas Hobbes

“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”

Enough Body Secret Danger Strongest Having Strength

Book:The Moral and Political Works To which is Prefixed the Autors Life, Extracted from that Said to be Written by Himself ... Illustr. by the Ed. - London 1750

Source: The Moral and Political Works To which is Prefixed the Autors Life, Extracted from that Said to be Written by Himself ... Illustr. by the Ed. - London 1750