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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

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Thomas Hobbes
Age: 91 †
Born: 1588
Born: April 5
Died: 1679
Died: December 4
Economist
Historian
Mathematician
Philosopher
Political Scientist
Politician
Translator
Westport
Wiltshire
Hobbes
Thomas Hobbsted
Thomas Hobbes of Malflutry
Life
Preservation
Hath
Liberty
Use
Nature
Power
Right
Men
Leviathan

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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.
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Every man may think his own cause just till it be heard and judged.
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The Register of Knowledge of Fact is called History .
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He that is taken and put into prison or chains is not conquered, though overcome for he is still an enemy.
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For all laws are general judgements, or sentences of the legislator as also every particular judgement is a law to him whose case is judged.
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I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.
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What reason is there that he which laboreth much, and, sparing the fruits of his labor, consumeth little, should be more charged than he that, living idly, getteth little and spendeth all he gets, seeing the one hath no more protection from the commonwealth than the other?
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They that are discontented under monarchy, call it tyranny and they that are displeased with aristocracy, call it oligarchy: so also, they which find themselves grieved under a democracy, call it anarchy, which signifies the want of government and yet I think no man believes, that want of government, is any new kind of government.
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As in the presence of the Master, the Servants are equall, and without any honour at all So are the Subjects, in the presence of the Soveraign. And though they shine some more, some lesse, when they are out of his sight yet in his presence, they shine no more than the Starres in presence of the Sun.
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Covenants without swords are but words.
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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.
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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 commonwealth, and not by their mediocrity, nor by their being commended. For several men praise several customs, and, contrarily, what one calls vice, another calls virtue, as their present affections lead them.
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That wee have of Geometry, which is the mother of all Naturall Science, wee are not indebted for it to the Schools.
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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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Unnecessary laws are not good laws, but traps for money.
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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 is subject.
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The science which teacheth arts and handicrafts is merely science for the gaining of a living but the science which teacheth deliverance from worldly existence, is not that the true science?
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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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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.
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Ambition, and Covetousnesse are Passions that are perpetually incumbent, and pressing.
Thomas Hobbes