30 quotes
English philosopher (1588–1679)
“The first and fundamental law of Nature, which is, to seek peace and follow it.”
"Silence is sometimes an argument of Consent"
on Wisdom
"Curiosity is the lust of the mind."
on Curiosity
"Hell is truth seen too late."
on Truth
"I often observe the absurdity of dreams, but never dream of the absurdity of my waking thoughts."
on Psychology
"Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues."
on War
"Felicity is a continual progress of the desire, from one object to another; the attaining of the former being still but the way to the latter."
on Happiness
"Now I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark"
on Death
"For it can never be that war shall preserve life, and peace destroy it."
"Prudence is but experience, which equal time, equally bestows on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto."
"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."
on Government
"I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death."
on Power
"Science is the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another."
on Science
"In the state of nature profit is the measure of right."
"When all the world is overcharged with inhabitants, then the last remedy of all is war, which provideth for every man, by victory or death."
"Understanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech."
on Communication
"If I had read as much as other men I should have known no more than they."
"Leisure is the mother of philosophy."
on Philosophy
"Give an inch he'll take an ell."
"The condition of man... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone."
"War consisteth not in battle only, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the will to contend by battle is sufficiently known."
