Thomas Hobbes Desire Quotations

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.

I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.

Desire to know why, and how - curiosity, which is a lust of the mind, that a perseverance of delight in the continued and indefatigable generation of knowledge - exceedeth the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure.

Desire to know why, and how -- curiosity, which is a lust of the mind, that a perseverance of delight in the continued and indefatigable generation of knowledge -- exceedeth the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure.

Desire of praise disposeth to laudable actions.

The object of man's desire is not to enjoy once only, and for one instant of time; but to assure for ever, the way of his future desires.

... it is one thing to desire, another to be in capacity fit for what we desire.

Humans are driven by a perpetual and restless desire of power.

Of all Discourse , governed by desire of Knowledge, there is at last an End , either by attaining, or by giving over.

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

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.

So that in the first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind a perpetual and restless desire of Power after power, that ceaseth only in Death. And the cause of this is not always that a man hopes for a more intensive delight than he has already attained to, or that he cannot be content with a moderate power: but because he cannot assure the power and means to live well, which he hath present, without the acquisition of more.