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The object of man's desire is not to enjoy once only, and for one instant of time but to assure for ever, the way of his future desires.

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
Time
Object
Objects
Future
Enjoy
Desire
Ever
Assure
Way
Desires
Men
Instant

More quotes by Thomas Hobbes

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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.
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But yet they that have no Science , are in better, and nobler condition with their naturall Prudence than men, that by their mis-reasoning, or by trusting them that reason wrong, fall upon false and absurd generall rules.
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Intemperance is naturally punished with diseases rashness, with mischance injustice with violence of enemies pride, with ruin cowardice, with oppression and rebellion, with slaughter.
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To say that God is an incorporeal substance, is to say in effect there is no God at all. What alleges he against it, but the School-divinity which I have already answered? Scripture he can bring none, because the word incorporeal is not found in Scripture.
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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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The Register of Knowledge of Fact is called History .
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Obligation is thraldom, and thraldom is hateful.
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The power of a man is his present means to obtain some future apparent good.
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And if a man consider the original of this great Ecclesiastical Dominion, he will easily perceive, that the Papacy , is no other than the Ghost of the deceased Romane Empire , sitting crowned upon the grave thereof: For so did the Papacy start up on a Sudden out of the Ruines of that Heathen Power.
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The praise of ancient authors proceeds not from the reverence of the dead, but from the competition and mutual envy of the living.
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And as in other things, so in men, not the seller, but the buyer determines the Price.
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The passions of men are commonly more potent than their reason.
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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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A covenant not to defend myself from force by force is always void. For ... no man can transfer or lay down his Right to save himself. For the right men have by Nature to protect themselves, when none else can protect them, can by no Covenant be relinquished. ... [The right] to defend ourselves [is the] summe of the Right of Nature.
Thomas Hobbes
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Let a man (as most men do) rate themselves as the highest Value they can yet their true Value is no more than it is esteemed by others.
Thomas Hobbes
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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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To conclude, The Light of humane minds is Perspicuous Words, but by exact definitions first snuffed, and purged from ambiguity Reason is the pace Encrease of Science, the way and the Benefit of man-kind, the end.
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Scientia potentia est, sed parva quia scientia egregia rara est, nec proinde apparens nisi paucissimis, et in paucis rebus. Scientiae enim ea natura est, ut esse intelligi non possit, nisi ab illis qui sunt scientia praediti.
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For after the subject is removed or the eye shut, we still retain an image of the things seen, though more obscure than when we see it...Imagination, therefore, is nothing more than decaying sense.
Thomas Hobbes
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Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.
Thomas Hobbes