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A Law of Nature, (Lex Naturalis) is a Precept, or general Rule, found out by Reason, by which a man is forbidden to do, that, which is destructive of his life, or taketh away the means of preserving the same and to omit, that, by which he thinketh it may be best preserved.

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
Nature
Forbidden
May
Destructive
Best
Rule
Reason
General
Thinketh
Mean
Law
Omit
Men
Means
Precept
Life
Away
Preserving
Found
Preserved

More quotes by Thomas Hobbes

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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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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.
Thomas Hobbes
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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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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
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Unnecessary laws are not good laws, but traps for money.
Thomas Hobbes
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No man is bound by the words themselves, either to kill himselfe, or any other man.
Thomas Hobbes
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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.
Thomas Hobbes
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And this Feare of things invisible, is the naturall Seed of that, which every one in himself calleth Religion and in them that worship, or feare that Power otherwise than they do, Superstition.
Thomas Hobbes
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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 victory or death.
Thomas Hobbes
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Curiosity is the lust of the mind.
Thomas Hobbes
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The value of all things contracted for, is measured by the appetite of the contractors, and therefore the just value is that which they be contented to give.
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.
Thomas Hobbes
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Felicity is a continual progress of the desire from one object to another, the attaining of the former being still but the way to the latter.
Thomas Hobbes
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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.
Thomas Hobbes
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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?
Thomas Hobbes
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So that every Crime is a sinne but not every sinne a Crime.
Thomas Hobbes
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The Register of Knowledge of Fact is called History .
Thomas Hobbes
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And Beasts that have Deliberation , must necessarily also have Will .
Thomas Hobbes
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To speak impartially, both sayings are very true: that man to man is a kind of God and that man to man is an arrant wolf. The first is true, if we compare citizens amongst themselves and the second, if we compare cities.
Thomas Hobbes
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For if all things were equally in all men, nothing would be prized.
Thomas Hobbes