The praise of ancient authors proceeds n... by Thomas Hobbes | We Heart Quotes

philosopher Competition Materialism Political theorist Human nature

The praise of ancient authors proceeds not from the reverence of the dead, but from the competition and mutual envy of the living.

- Thomas Hobbes

Other quotes by Thomas Hobbes

Right Men Man

That a man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth as for peace and defense of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men against himself.

- Thomas Hobbes

Absurdity Man

The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man only.

- Thomas Hobbes

Religion

Fear of things invisible in the natural seed of that which everyone in himself calleth religion.

- Thomas Hobbes

It's not the pace of life I mind. It's the sudden stop at the end.

- Thomas Hobbes

War

Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.

- Thomas Hobbes

Power Men Time Man

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.

- Thomas Hobbes

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While one man can discover a certain thing by himself, another is never able to understand it, even if taught by means of all possible expressions and metaphors, and during a long period; his mind can in no way grasp it, his capacity is insufficient for it.

- Maimonides

The method of nature: who could ever analyze it?

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer. For there is no such flatterer as is a man's self.

- Francis Bacon