Thomas Hobbes

Laughter is nothing else but sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly.

Do not that to another, which thou wouldst not have done to thyself.

It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law

The errors of definitions multiply themselves according as the reckoning proceeds; and lead men into absurdities, which at last they see but cannot avoid, without reckoning anew from the beginning.

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

If any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies.

It is many times with a fraudulent Design that men stick their corrupt Doctrine with the Cloves of other mens Wit.

To be seduced by Orators, as a Monarch by Flatterers.

Moral philosophy is nothing else but the science of what is good, and evil, in the conversation, and society of mankind. Good, and evil, are names that signify our appetites, and aversions; which in different tempers, customs, and doctrines of men, are different.

Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them: but they are the money of fools, that value them by the authority of an Aristotle, a Cicero, or a Thomas, or any other doctor whatsoever, if but a man.

The power of a man is his present means to obtain some future apparent good.

If I had read as much as other men I would have known no more than they.

Thoughts are to the Desires as Scouts and Spies, to range abroad, and find the way to the things Desired.

The reputation of power IS power.

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

Not believing in force is the same as not believing in gravitation.

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

Corporations are may lesser commonwealths in the bowels of a greater, like worms in the entrails of a natural man.

A man's conscience and his judgment is the same thing; and as the judgment, so also the conscience, may be erroneous.

For if all things were equally in all men, nothing would be prized.

The source of every crime, is some defect of the understanding; or some error in reasoning; or some sudden force of the passions. Defect in the understanding is ignorance; in reasoning, erroneous opinion.