Thomas Hobbes Quotes on Man (12 Quotes)

Covenants without the sword are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all.

The secret thoughts of a man run over all things, holy, profane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame or blame.

Man is distinguished, not only by his reason but also by this singular passion from other animals... which is a lust of the mind, that by a perseverance of delight in the continual and indefatigable generation of knowledge, exceeds the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure.

During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man.

Words are the counters of wise men, and the money of fools.

The power of a man, to take it universally, is his present means, to obtain some future apparent good and is either original or instrumental.

A wise man should so write (though in words understood by all men) that wise men only should be able to commend him.

Prudence is but experience, which equal time, equally bestows on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto.

No arts no letters no society and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

The condition of man... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.

Such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves.

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. 'This' is that the volume generated by revolving the region under 1x from 1 to infinity has finite volume.