Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Last
Leviathan
Power
Sovereign
States
Obligation
Able
Subjects
Long
Understood
Protect
Longer
Lasts

More quotes by Thomas Hobbes

Image
To be seduced by Orators, as a Monarch by Flatterers.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
For if all things were equally in all men, nothing would be prized.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
The Enemy has been here in the night of our natural ignorance, and sown the tares of spiritual errors.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
A Covenant not to defend my selfe from force, by force, is always voyd.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
Religions are like pills, which must be swallowed whole without chewing.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
It's not the pace of life I mind. It's the sudden stop at the end.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
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.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
How could a state be governed, or protected in its foreign relations if every individual remained free to obey or not to obey the law according to his private opinion.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
Science is the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
A man cannot lay down the right of resisting them that assault him by force, to take away his life.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
Emulation is grief arising from seeing one's self, exceeded or excelled by his concurrent, together with hope to equal or exceed him in time to come, by his own ability. But envy is the same grief joined with pleasure conceived in the imagination of some ill-fortune that may befall him.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
But if one Subject giveth Counsell to another, to do anything contrary to the Lawes, whether that Counsell proceed from evil intention, or from ignorance onely, it is punishable by the Common-wealth because igorance of the Law, is no good excuse, where every man is bound to take notice of the Lawes to which he is subject.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
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?
Thomas Hobbes
Image
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?
Thomas Hobbes
Image
A democracy is no more than an aristocracy of orators. The people are so readily moved by demagogues that control must be exercised by the government over speech and press.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
True and false are attributes of speech not of things. And where speech is not, there is neither truth nor falsehood. Error theremay be, as when we expect that which shall not be or suspect what has not been: but in neither case can a man be charged with untruth.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
The power of a man is his present means to obtain some future apparent good.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
For seeing life is but a motion of Limbs... why may we not say, that all Automata (Engines that move themselves by springs and wheels as doth a watch) have an artificial life?
Thomas Hobbes
Image
Whatsoever is the object of any man's Appetite or Desire that is it which he for his part calleth Good: and the object of his Hate and Aversion, evil.
Thomas Hobbes
Image
The Register of Knowledge of Fact is called History .
Thomas Hobbes