Felicity is 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

Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.

— Thomas Hobbes

For, from the time that the Bishop of Rome had gotten to be acknowledged for bishop universal, by pretence of succession to St. Peter, their whole hierarchy, or kingdom of darkness, may be compared not unfitly to the kingdom of fairies; that is, to the old wives' fables in England concerning ghosts and spirits, and the feats they play in the night. And if a man consider the original of this great ecclesiastical dominion, he will easily perceive that the papacy is no other than the ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof: for so did the papacy start up on a sudden out of the ruins of that heathen power.

— Thomas Hobbes

For it can never be that war shall preserve life, and peace destroy it.

— Thomas Hobbes

For such is the nature of man, 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: For they see their own wit at hand, and other men sat a distance.

— Thomas Hobbes

Give an inch he'll take an ell.

— Thomas Hobbes

Hell is truth seen too late.

— Thomas Hobbes

If I had read as much as other men I should have known no more than them.

— Thomas Hobbes

In the state of nature profit is the measure of right.

— Thomas Hobbes

I often observe the absurdity of dreams, but never dream of the absurdity of my waking thoughts.

— Thomas Hobbes