Thomas Hobbes cytaty

strona 3

„Obawa przed rzeczami niewidzialnymi jest naturalnym źródłem Tego, co każdy w swoim umyśle nazywa religią.”

„Wielki skok w ciemność.”

„Ludzie odwołują się od zwyczaju do rozumu i od rozumu do zwyczaju, zależnie od tego, co im jest wygodne; i odstępują od zwyczaju, gdy tego wymaga ich interes, albo znów przeciwstawiają się rozumowi, gdy tylko rozum jest przeciw nim.”

„Pożądanie i wstręt różnią się od siebie, tak jak rzecz przyszła od teraźniejszej.”

„Wojna wszystkich przeciw wszystkim.”

„Bezpieczeństwa nie dają prawa natury ani zjednoczenie nielicznych ludzi czy rodzin, ani wielka mnogość, o ile nie kieruje nią jedna wola.”

„Któż bowiem nie widzi, kto ma z tego korzyść, iż ludzie wierzą, że król nie ma władzy nad chrześcijaninem, o ile biskup go nie ukoronuje?”

„Dobry nastrój człowieka zasadza się na tym, by sądzić o swych zaletach jak najlepiej porównując je z kimkolwiek innym.”

„Geometria jest jak do tej pory jedyną nauką, jaką Bogu spodobało się podarować rodzajowi ludzkiemu.”

„Ugody bez miecza są tylko słowami i nie mają mocy, by dać człowiekowi bezpieczeństwo.”

„Apetyt połączony z przekonaniem, że się go zaspokoi, nazywa się nadzieją.”

“As also the great number of Corporations; which are as it were many lesser Common-wealths in the bowels of a greater, like wormes in the entrayles of a natural man.”

“Give an inch, he'll take an ell.”

“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 ignorance of the Law, is no good excuse, where every man is bound to take notice of the Lawes to which he is subject.”

“A Covenant not to defend my selfe from force, by force, is always voyd.”

“For Warre, consisteth not in Battell onely, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the Will to contend by Battell is sufficiently known: and therefore the notion of Time, is to be considered in the nature of Warre; as it is in the nature of Weather.”

“Science is the knowledge of Consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another: by which, out of that we can presently do, we know how to do something else when we will, or the like, another time:”

“Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called Warre; and such a warre, as is of every man, against every man.”

“The secret thoughts of a man run over all things, holy, prophane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame, or blame…”

“And for Incoherent Speech, it was amongst the Gentiles taken for one sort of Prophecy, because the Prophets of their Oracles, intoxicated with a spirit, or vapor from the cave of the Pythian Oracle at Delphi, were for a time really mad, and spake like mad-men; of whoose loose words a sense might be made to fit any event, in such sort, as all bodies are said to be made of Materia prima.”

“But Aversion wee have for things, not only which we know have hurt us; but also that we do not know whether they will hurt us, or not.”

“If this superstitious fear of Spirits were taken away, and with it, Prognostiques from Dreams, false Prophecies, and many other things depending thereon, by which, crafty ambitious persons abuse the simple people, men would be much more fitted then they are for civill Obedience.”

“I know not how the world will receive it, nor how it may reflect on those that shall seem to favor it. For in a way beset with those that contend, on one side for too great Liberty, and on the other side for too much Authority, 'tis hard to passe between the points of both unwounded.”

“For there is no such thing as perpetual Tranquility of mind, while we live here; because Life it selfe is but Motion, and can never be without Desire, nor without Feare, no more than without Sense.”

“For he that hath strength enough to protect all, wants not sufficiency to oppresse all.”

“No man is bound by the words themselves, either to kill himselfe, or any other man.”

“By MANNERS, I mean not here Decency of behaviour; as how one man should salute another, or how a man should wash his mouth, or pick his teeth before company, and such other points of the Small Morals; But those qualities of mankind that concern their living together in Peace and Unity. To which end we are to consider that the Felicity of this life consisteth not in the repose of a mind satisfied. For there is no such Finis ultimus (utmost aim) nor Summum Bonum (greatest good) as is spoken of in the books of the old Moral Philosophers. Nor can a man any more live whose desires are at an end than he whose Senses and Imaginations are at a stand.”

“Desire, to know why, and how, CURIOSITY; such as is in no living creature but Man; so that Man is distinguished, not only by his Reason; but also by this singular Passion from other Animals; in whom the appetite of food, and other pleasures of Sense, by predominance, take away the care of knowing causes; which is a Lust of the mind, that by a perseverance of delight in the continual and indefatigable generation of Knowledge, exceedeth the short vehemence of any carnal Pleasure.”

“In the state of nature, Profit is the measure of Right.”
...in statu naturae Mensuram juris esse Utilitatem.

“For Prudence, is but Experience; which equal time, equally bestows on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto.”

“For naturall Bloud is in like manner made of the fruits of the Earth; and circulating, nourisheth by the way, every Member of the Body of Man.”

“From whence it follows, that were the publique and private interest are most closely united, there is the publique most advanced.”

“Power as is really divided, and as dangerously to all purposes, by sharing with another an Indirect Power, as a Direct one.”

“To understand this for sense it is not required that a man should be a geometrician or a logician, but that he should be mad.”

“But this priviledge, is allayed by another; and that is, by the priviledge of Absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man only.”

“The same, without such opinion, DESPAIRE.”

“Of all Discourse, governed by desire of Knowledge, there is at last an End, either by attaining, or by giving over.”

“Time, and Industry, produce everyday new knowledge.”

“A naturall foole that could never learn by heart the order of numerall words, as one, two, and three, may observe every stroak of the Clock, and nod to it, or say one, one, one; but can never know what houre it strikes.”

“From the same it proceedeth, that men gives different names, to one and the same thing, from the difference of their own passions: As they that approve a private opinion, call it Opinion; but they that mislike it, Haeresie: and yet haeresie signifies no more than private opinion; but has only agreater tincture of choler”