“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 , book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 11, p. 47.
Leviathan (1651)
Context: 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. The cause whereof is that the object of man's desire is not to enjoy once only, and for one instant of time, but to assure forever the way of his future desire. And therefore the voluntary actions and inclinations of all men tend not only to the procuring, but also to the assuring of a contented life, and differ only in the way, which ariseth partly from the diversity of passions in diverse men, and partly from the difference of the knowledge or opinion each one has of the causes which produce the effect desired.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Felicity is a continual progress of the desire from one object to another, the attaining of the former being still but …" by Thomas Hobbes?
Thomas Hobbes photo
Thomas Hobbes 97
English philosopher, born 1588 1588–1679

Related quotes

Marcus Tullius Cicero photo

“While there are two ways of contending, one by discussion, the other by force, the former belonging properly to man, the latter to beasts, recourse must be had to the latter if there be no opportunity for employing the former.”
Nam cum sint duo genera decertandi, unum per disceptationem, alterum per vim, cumque illud proprium sit hominis, hoc beluarum, confugiendum est ad posterius, si uti non licet superiore.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

Book I, section 34. Translation by Andrew P. Peabody
De Officiis – On Duties (44 BC)

Timothy Shay Arthur photo

“The gratification of one desire only makes way for another still more exacting.”

Timothy Shay Arthur (1809–1885) Novelist, short story writer, publisher

Advice to Young Men on Their Duties and Conduct in Life (1848), p. 31

“Phenomenology is one name for the path back from the object to the thing, the counterbalance to the objectification or 'progress'. Poetry is another.”

Don McKay (1942) Canadian poet

'Paradoxides' 2012
Other quotes

Georges Braque photo

“Tactile space separates us from objects, as opposed to visual space, which separates objects from one another. I have spent my life trying to paint the former kind.”

Georges Braque (1882–1963) French painter and sculptor

Quote of Braque to John Richardson, in 'Braque Discusses His Art', in 'Realités', no. 93, August 1958, p. 28
1946 - 1963

Tryon Edwards photo

“It has been said that science is opposed to, and in conflict with revelation. But the history of the former shows that the greater its progress, and the more accurate its investigations and results, the more plainly it is seen not only not to clash with the latter, but in all things to confirm it. The very sciences from which objections have been brought against religion have, by their own progress, removed those objections, and in the end furnished full confirmation of the inspired Word of God.”

Tryon Edwards (1809–1894) American theologian

Source: A Dictionary of Thoughts, 1891, p. 506.

George Washington photo

“The satisfaction arising from the indulgent opinion entertained by the American People of my conduct, will, I trust, be some security for preventing me from doing any thing, which might justly incur the forfeiture of that opinion. And the consideration that human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected, will always continue to prompt me to promote the progress of the former, by inculcating the practice of the latter.”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

Letter to the Protestant Episcopal Church (19 August 1789) Scan at American Memory (Library of Congress). http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mgw/mgw2/038/0580042.jpg
1780s

“Look, Felicity,' says Howard, 'there's only one rule. Follow the line of your own desires.”

Malcolm Bradbury book The History Man

Page 84.
The History Man (1975)

Colin Wilson photo

“No matter how honest scientists think they are, they are still influenced by various unconscious assumptions that prevent them from attaining true objectivity.”

Colin Wilson (1931–2013) author

Source: Mysteries (1978), p. 125
Context: No matter how honest scientists think they are, they are still influenced by various unconscious assumptions that prevent them from attaining true objectivity. Expressed in a sentence, Fort's principle goes something like this: People with a psychological need to believe in marvels are no more prejudiced and gullible than people with a psychological need not to believe in marvels.

Bernhard Riemann photo

“If in the case of a notion whose specialisations form a continuous manifoldness, one passes from a certain specialisation in a definite way to another, the specialisations passed over form a simply extended manifoldness, whose true character is that in it a continuous progress from a point is possible only on two sides, forwards or backwards. If one now supposes that this manifoldness in its turn passes over into another entirely different, and again in a definite way, namely so that each point passes over into a definite point of the other, then all the specialisations so obtained form a doubly extended manifoldness. In a similar manner one obtains a triply extended manifoldness, if one imagines a doubly extended one passing over in a definite way to another entirely different; and it is easy to see how this construction may be continued. If one regards the variable object instead of the determinable notion of it, this construction may be described as a composition of a variability of n + 1 dimensions out of a variability of n dimensions and a variability of one dimension.”

Bernhard Riemann (1826–1866) German mathematician

On the Hypotheses which lie at the Bases of Geometry (1873)

James Madison photo

“As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

Federalist No. 10
1780s, Federalist Papers (1787–1788)

Related topics