Quotes from book
Leviathan

Leviathan

Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, commonly referred to as Leviathan, is a book written by Thomas Hobbes and published in 1651 . Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan. The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. Leviathan ranks as a classic Western work on statecraft comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince. Written during the English Civil War , Leviathan argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature could only be avoided by strong, undivided government.

“Sudden Glory, is the passion which maketh those Grimaces called LAUGHTER.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 6, p. 27 (italics and spelling as per text)
Leviathan (1651)

“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.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 5, p. 21
Leviathan (1651)

“For Appetite with an opinion of attaining, is called HOPE.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

Leviathan (1651)

“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.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The Second Part, Chapter 29, p. 174
Leviathan (1651)

“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.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The Second Part, Chapter 25, p. 132
Leviathan (1651)

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

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 14, p. 69
Leviathan (1651)

“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.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 13, p. 62
Leviathan (1651)

“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:”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 5, p. 21
Leviathan (1651)

“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.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 13, p. 62
Leviathan (1651)

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

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 8, p. 34
Leviathan (1651)

“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.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The Third Part, Chapter 36, p. 226 (See also: Glossolalia)
Leviathan (1651)

“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.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 6, p. 24
Leviathan (1651)

“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.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 2, p. 8
Leviathan (1651)

“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.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The Epistle Dedicatory, Paris, April 15-25, 1651
Leviathan (1651)

“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.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 6, p. 29 (See also: Rene Girard)
Leviathan (1651)

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

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The Second Part, Chapter 21, p. 112
Leviathan (1651)

“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.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 11, p. 47
Leviathan (1651)

“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.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 6, p. 26
Leviathan (1651)

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

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 13, p. 60
Leviathan (1651)

“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.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The Second Part, Chapter 24, p. 130 (See also: Velocity of money)
Leviathan (1651)

Showing 60 of 83

«
1
2
3
4
5
Next »

Similar authors

Thomas Hobbes photo

Thomas Hobbes 97

English philosopher, born 1588 1588–1679

John Locke photo

John Locke 144

English philosopher and physician

Baltasar Gracián photo

Baltasar Gracián 31

Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer and philosopher

Immanuel Kant photo

Immanuel Kant 200

German philosopher

Francis Bacon photo

Francis Bacon 295

English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and auth…