016 · What men wanted and did not do

Original in English

It may seem strange to some man, that has not well weighed these things; that Nature should thus dissociate, and render man apt to invade, and destroy one another: and he may therefore, not trusting to this Inference, made from the Passions, desire perhaps to have the same confirmed by Experience. Let him therefore consider with himselfe, when taking a journey, he arms himselfe, and seeks to go well accompanied; when going to sleep, he locks his dores; when even in his house he locks his chests; and this when he knows there bee Lawes, and publike Officers, armed, to revenge all injuries shall bee done him; what opinion he has of his fellow subjects, when he rides armed; of his fellow Citizens, when he locks his dores; and of his children, and servantes, when he locks his chests. Does he not there as much accuse mankind by his actions, as I do by my words?

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, I, xiii