25 Thomas Hobbes Quotes on Power, Society, and Human Nature
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was an English philosopher whose masterwork, Leviathan (1651), is one of the foundational texts of modern political philosophy. Born prematurely when his mother went into labor upon hearing news of the approaching Spanish Armada, Hobbes later quipped that "fear and I were born twins." He lived to the remarkable age of 91, remaining intellectually active almost to the end -- he published a translation of Homer's Odyssey at 87 and reportedly played tennis regularly into his seventies.
Hobbes wrote Leviathan during the English Civil War, a period of horrifying violence that saw King Charles I beheaded, thousands killed in battle, and the entire social order of England torn apart. Living in exile in Paris as a royalist refugee, Hobbes used the chaos around him as a laboratory for understanding human nature and the origins of political authority. His conclusion was bleak but powerful: without a strong sovereign power to enforce order, human existence would inevitably descend into a war of all against all. His description of life in such a state of nature has become one of the most quoted phrases in all of philosophy: "The life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." That devastating image -- born from the real experience of civil war and social collapse -- remains the starting point for virtually every modern debate about the purpose and legitimacy of government.
Who Was Thomas Hobbes?
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Born | 5 April 1588, Westport, Wiltshire, England |
| Died | 4 December 1679 (aged 91), Hardwick Hall, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Philosopher, Political Theorist |
| Known For | "Leviathan," Social contract theory, "Nasty, brutish, and short" |
Key Achievements and Episodes
Born in Fear
Hobbes was born prematurely when his mother received news of the approaching Spanish Armada in 1588. He later joked, "My mother gave birth to twins: myself and fear." This remark proved prophetic — his entire political philosophy was built on the conviction that fear of violent death is the fundamental human motivation, and that only a powerful sovereign can prevent the war of all against all.
Leviathan and the Social Contract
Published in 1651 during the English Civil War, Hobbes's "Leviathan" argued that without government, human life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." He proposed that rational people would agree to surrender their freedoms to an absolute sovereign in exchange for security and order. The book offended both royalists, who disliked his secular justification for authority, and parliamentarians, who rejected his defense of absolute power.
The Longest-Lived Philosopher of His Era
Hobbes lived to the remarkable age of 91 in a period when average life expectancy was roughly 35 years. He remained intellectually active until the end, publishing a translation of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad in his late eighties. He reportedly played tennis until age 75 and attributed his longevity to regular exercise and singing in bed each night, which he believed was good for the lungs.
Who Was Thomas Hobbes?
Thomas Hobbes was born on April 5, 1588, in Westport, near Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England. His mother reportedly went into premature labor upon hearing rumors that the Spanish Armada was approaching England's shores, and Hobbes later quipped that he and fear were born twins. His father, also named Thomas, was a disgraced vicar who abandoned the family after a brawl outside his own church, leaving young Thomas to be raised by a wealthy uncle, Francis Hobbes. The boy proved intellectually gifted from an early age, learning Latin and Greek before he was a teenager, and at the age of fourteen he entered Magdalen Hall at the University of Oxford. He found the Scholastic curriculum stifling and later expressed contempt for the Aristotelian logic that dominated the university, but he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1608.
After Oxford, Hobbes became the tutor and companion to William Cavendish, the future second Earl of Devonshire, beginning a lifelong association with one of England's most powerful aristocratic families. This position gave Hobbes access to the great libraries and intellectual salons of Europe. He accompanied the young Cavendish on the Grand Tour, traveling through France and Italy, and in the process encountered the continental intellectual currents that would shape his thinking. On a later trip in 1636, he visited Galileo in Florence and corresponded with René Descartes and Pierre Gassendi in Paris. Hobbes became convinced that the methods of geometry and the new mechanical science could be applied to understanding human nature and political life, a conviction that would set him apart from virtually every thinker who had come before.
The English Civil War was the crucible that forged Hobbes's greatest work. As tensions between King Charles I and Parliament escalated in 1640, Hobbes — fearing that his royalist sympathies would make him a target — fled to Paris, where he remained in exile for eleven years. During this period he served briefly as mathematics tutor to the future Charles II and composed his masterpiece, Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, published in 1651. The book argued that human beings, driven by self-interest and the fear of violent death, would rationally agree to surrender their natural freedom to an absolute sovereign in exchange for peace and security. The state, Hobbes maintained, was not divinely ordained but a human construction — a "mortal god" whose authority derived from the consent of the governed.
Leviathan managed to offend almost everyone. Royalists were disturbed by Hobbes's rejection of the divine right of kings; parliamentarians were alarmed by his advocacy of absolute sovereignty; and the clergy were scandalized by his materialist philosophy, which seemed to deny the existence of an immaterial soul and to reduce religion to a tool of political control. The exiled court of Charles II in Paris effectively expelled Hobbes, and he returned to England in 1651, making his peace with Cromwell's Commonwealth on the grounds that any effective sovereign deserved obedience. Earlier works, including De Cive (1642) and The Elements of Law (circulated in manuscript in 1640), had already laid the groundwork for his political theory, but Leviathan became the definitive statement.
After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Hobbes was received back at court and granted a pension, but his intellectual battles were far from over. He engaged in bitter disputes with John Wallis over geometry, with Robert Boyle over the nature of the vacuum, and with the bishops of the Church of England over the implications of his philosophy for religion and morality. Parliament considered a bill against atheism that many believed was aimed at Hobbes, and for a time he was forbidden from publishing on political or religious subjects in England. Undeterred, he continued writing well into old age, producing a verse autobiography, a translation of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey at the age of eighty-six, and several works of historical and philosophical interest. Hobbes died on December 4, 1679, at the age of ninety-one, at Hardwick Hall, the Cavendish family estate. His last words, reportedly, were "I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark." He remains one of the most original, unsettling, and indispensable thinkers in the history of Western philosophy.
Thomas Hobbes Quotes on Human Nature
Thomas Hobbes quotes on human nature present the most unsentimental assessment of the human condition in the history of political philosophy. His description of the state of nature — a condition of "war of every man against every man" — is the foundation of his entire political system, developed in Leviathan (1651), the masterwork he wrote during the chaos of the English Civil War. Hobbes argued that without a strong sovereign to maintain order, human life would inevitably devolve into the famous condition he described as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Born prematurely in 1588 when his mother went into labor upon hearing news of the approaching Spanish Armada, Hobbes later quipped that "fear and I were born twins" — a biographical detail that illuminates his lifelong preoccupation with security and the terror of violent death. His pessimistic view of human nature was not mere abstract speculation but was informed by the horrifying violence of his era: the English Civil War saw the execution of King Charles I, battles that killed tens of thousands, and the complete collapse of social order. Yet Hobbes's analysis remains relevant: his insight that the fundamental desire for self-preservation drives all human behavior has influenced evolutionary psychology, game theory, and international relations theory.
"During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man."
Leviathan, Chapter 13 (1651) — Hobbes defines the state of nature as a condition of universal conflict arising from the absence of sovereign authority.
"Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of war, where every man is enemy to every man, the same consequent to the time wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them withal. In such condition there is no place for industry... no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; 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."
Leviathan, Chapter 13 (1651) — The most famous passage in all of political philosophy, describing the misery of existence without government.
"So that in the nature of man, we find three principal causes of quarrel. First, competition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly, glory."
Leviathan, Chapter 13 (1651) — Hobbes identifies the three fundamental drivers of human conflict: the desire for gain, the need for safety, and the craving for reputation.
"The condition of man... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone."
Leviathan, Chapter 14 (1651) — Hobbes restates his fundamental premise that without political authority, human existence is defined by perpetual conflict.
"I put for a general inclination of all mankind a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death."
Leviathan, Chapter 11 (1651) — Hobbes declares that the drive for power is the defining characteristic of human nature, never ceasing as long as a person lives.
"The passions that incline men to peace are: fear of death; desire of such things as are necessary to commodious living; and a hope by their industry to obtain them."
Leviathan, Chapter 13 (1651) — Even in his darkest analysis, Hobbes finds the seeds of cooperation in our natural desire for survival and comfort.
Thomas Hobbes Quotes on Power & Sovereignty
Thomas Hobbes quotes on power and sovereignty articulate his theory of absolute political authority as the only remedy for the inherent chaos of human social life. His principle that the obligation of subjects lasts only "as long as the power lasteth" introduces a radical element into his otherwise authoritarian theory: the social contract that creates the sovereign is binding only as long as the sovereign can actually protect its subjects. This pragmatic criterion of legitimacy — based on effective protection rather than divine right or hereditary succession — made Hobbes a revolutionary political thinker despite his defense of strong government. As a royalist exile in Paris during the English Civil War, Hobbes tutored the future King Charles II in mathematics while writing Leviathan, yet the book offended both royalists (who disliked its contractual theory of sovereignty) and parliamentarians (who objected to its absolutism), leaving Hobbes politically homeless. His materialist philosophy — which denied the existence of immaterial substances and explained all phenomena, including thought and sensation, in terms of matter in motion — earned him accusations of atheism that dogged him for the rest of his remarkably long life. He lived to ninety-one, remaining intellectually active almost to the end.
"The obligation of subjects to the sovereign is understood to last as long, and no longer, than the power lasteth by which he is able to protect them."
Leviathan, Chapter 21 (1651) — Hobbes establishes the reciprocal nature of the social contract: obedience is owed only in exchange for protection.
"Covenants, without the sword, are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all."
Leviathan, Chapter 17 (1651) — Hobbes insists that agreements are meaningless without the force to enforce them, making sovereign power indispensable.
"For by art is created that great Leviathan called a Commonwealth, or State, which is but an artificial man, though of greater stature and strength than the natural, for whose protection and defence it was intended."
Leviathan, Introduction (1651) — Hobbes introduces his central metaphor: the state as an artificial person, constructed by human ingenuity for human preservation.
"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."
Leviathan, Chapter 14 (1651) — Hobbes defines natural right as the freedom to do whatever is necessary for self-preservation.
"The sovereign is not a party to the social contract, but is created by it."
Leviathan, Chapter 18 (1651) — Hobbes clarifies that the sovereign stands above the contract, which is made among the subjects themselves.
"Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice."
Leviathan, Chapter 13 (1651) — Hobbes argues that justice and injustice are meaningful only within an established political order.
"The power of a man, to take it universally, is his present means to obtain some future apparent good."
Leviathan, Chapter 10 (1651) — Hobbes defines power in purely instrumental terms, as the capacity to achieve desired ends.
Thomas Hobbes Quotes on Reason & Knowledge
Thomas Hobbes quotes on reason and knowledge reflect his ambitious attempt to reconstruct philosophy on the model of geometry, proceeding from clear definitions to irrefutable conclusions. His vision of reason as "the pace" and science as "the way" expresses his conviction that proper philosophical method — beginning with precise definitions and proceeding by rigorous deduction — could resolve the moral and political disputes that had plunged England into civil war. Hobbes's intellectual formation was unusually broad: he served as secretary to Francis Bacon, traveled extensively in Europe where he met Galileo and corresponded with Descartes, and translated Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War to demonstrate to his countrymen the dangers of democratic government. His materialist epistemology — the theory that all knowledge originates in sensory experience caused by the motion of external bodies acting on our sense organs — anticipates the empiricism of Locke and Hume while maintaining a rationalist commitment to deductive reasoning that sets him apart from both. His nominalism — the view that universal terms like "man" or "justice" are merely names rather than descriptions of real essences — challenged the dominant Scholastic tradition and influenced the development of modern analytical philosophy.
"Reason is the pace; increase of science, the way; and the benefit of mankind, the end."
Leviathan, Chapter 5 (1651) — Hobbes frames reason as a method of rigorous calculation whose ultimate purpose is human welfare.
"Words are wise men's counters — they do but reckon by them; but they are the money of fools."
Leviathan, Chapter 4 (1651) — Hobbes warns that the wise use language as a tool for reasoning, while fools mistake words for truths in themselves.
"Science is the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another."
Leviathan, Chapter 5 (1651) — Hobbes defines science not as a collection of facts but as understanding the causal relationships between them.
"The light of human minds is perspicuous words, but by exact definitions first snuffed and purged from ambiguity."
Leviathan, Chapter 5 (1651) — Hobbes insists that clear thinking depends on precise definitions and the elimination of vague language.
"For there is no such thing as perpetual tranquillity of mind, while we live here; because life itself is but motion, and can never be without desire, nor without fear, no more than without sense."
Leviathan, Chapter 6 (1651) — Hobbes rejects the possibility of lasting inner peace, arguing that human life is defined by ceaseless desire and anxiety.
"Curiosity is the lust of the mind."
Leviathan, Chapter 6 (1651) — Hobbes characterizes the desire for knowledge as a passion as powerful and relentless as any bodily appetite.
Thomas Hobbes Quotes on Society & Freedom
Thomas Hobbes quotes on society and freedom present his distinctive understanding of liberty as the absence of external impediments to action — a definition that has profoundly influenced the liberal tradition while differing sharply from later conceptions of positive freedom. His definition of a free man as one who "is not hindered to do what he has a will to" focuses on physical obstacles and legal constraints rather than on internal capacities or moral development, establishing the tradition of "negative liberty" that Isaiah Berlin would later contrast with "positive liberty" in his famous 1958 lecture. Hobbes argued that natural liberty — the unlimited freedom of the state of nature — is so dangerous that rational individuals would voluntarily surrender most of it to a sovereign in exchange for security and peace. This trade-off between freedom and security, the central mechanism of Hobbes's social contract, continues to frame political debates about government surveillance, public health mandates, and the proper limits of state power. After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, the elderly Hobbes lived quietly in the households of his aristocratic patrons, publishing a translation of Homer's Odyssey at eighty-seven and reportedly playing tennis regularly into his seventies — a vigorous old age that belied his grim assessment of human existence.
"A free man is he that in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do is not hindered to do what he has a will to."
Leviathan, Chapter 21 (1651) — Hobbes defines freedom negatively, as the absence of external obstacles to action.
"No man's error becomes his own law, nor obliges him to persist in it."
Leviathan, Chapter 26 (1651) — Hobbes argues that making a mistake does not commit one to repeating it, since error carries no binding authority.
"Leisure is the mother of philosophy."
Leviathan, Chapter 46 (1651) — Hobbes acknowledges that philosophical reflection requires freedom from the immediate pressures of survival.
"Hell is truth seen too late."
Attributed to Thomas Hobbes — A stark warning that the failure to face reality in time leads to irreversible catastrophe.
"The first and fundamental law of nature... is to seek peace and follow it."
Leviathan, Chapter 14 (1651) — Despite his grim view of human nature, Hobbes holds that reason commands us above all to pursue peace as the condition of survival.
"Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues."
Leviathan, Chapter 13 (1651) — Hobbes observes that in the absence of law and morality, deception and violence become the only effective strategies.
"It is not wisdom but authority that makes a law."
A Dialogue between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Laws of England (1681) — Hobbes insists that the validity of law depends not on its rational content but on the power of the sovereign who enacts it.
Frequently Asked Questions About Thomas Hobbes
What is the state of nature according to Hobbes?
Thomas Hobbes' concept of the state of nature, described in Leviathan (1651), is one of the most influential thought experiments in political philosophy. Hobbes imagined what life would be like without government or laws. In this condition, all people are roughly equal in strength and cunning, everyone has a natural right to everything, and there is no authority to enforce agreements. The result is a "war of all against all" (bellum omnium contra omnes) in which life is, in his immortal phrase, "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Fear of violent death in this condition motivates rational people to surrender their natural freedom to a sovereign authority (the Leviathan) who can maintain order and peace through the power of enforcement.
What is the Leviathan about?
Leviathan (1651) is Thomas Hobbes' masterwork of political philosophy, named after the biblical sea monster symbolizing the immense power of the state. The book argues that human beings are fundamentally self-interested and that without a strong central authority, society would dissolve into chaos and violence. Hobbes proposed that rational individuals would agree to a social contract, surrendering their natural liberty to an absolute sovereign (which could be a monarch or an assembly) in exchange for security and order. The sovereign's authority is nearly unlimited because any constraint on the sovereign risks a return to the war of all against all. The work was revolutionary because it grounded political authority not in divine right or tradition but in rational self-interest and consent.
How did Hobbes and Locke disagree about human nature?
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, both social contract theorists, disagreed fundamentally about human nature and the proper scope of government. Hobbes believed humans are naturally selfish, competitive, and prone to violence, requiring an absolute sovereign to maintain order. Locke held a more optimistic view: humans are naturally rational, social, and capable of respecting each other's rights even without government. Consequently, Hobbes argued for absolute sovereignty with virtually no limits on state power, while Locke argued for limited government that exists solely to protect natural rights to life, liberty, and property. When government exceeds these limits, Locke believed citizens have the right to revolt -- a position Hobbes would have considered catastrophically dangerous. This disagreement shaped the entire subsequent tradition of political philosophy.
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