Leviathan

“For as in the midst of the sea, though a man perceive no sound of that part of the water next him, yet he is well assured that part contributes as much to the roaring of the sea as any other part of the same quantity: so also, though we perceive no great unquietness in one or two men, yet we may be well assured that their singular passions are parts of the seditious roaring of a troubled nation.”

Hobbes seems to emphasize the ever-present risk of civil war that commonwealths face when sovereign power is either weak or divided, as it was in the years prior to the English Civil Wars. This quote further suggests that even if a commonwealth by all appearances exists under conditions of stability, the threat of that dreaded state of total violence among men which arises in the absence of strong authority demands constant vigilance from sovereign and subject alike. Given that the ideas expressed in Leviathan are largely consistent with Hobbes’s philosophy prior to the English Civil Wars, it stands to reason that Hobbes sensed this danger and unrest long before any blood was actually shed.

“The greatest of human powers is that which is compounded of the powers of most men, united by consent, in one person, natural or civil, that has the use of all their powers depending on his will; such as is the power of a Commonwealth: or depending on the wills of each particular; such as is the power of a faction, or of diverse. factions leagued. Therefore to have servants is power; to have friends is power: for they are strengths united.”

Hobbes states the book’s predominant thesis: that for people to exercise the greatest power, they must sort themselves into commonwealths ruled by an undivided sovereign ruler. The precept that humans should strive to amass and exercise power at all is supported by Hobbes’s argument elsewhere that the chief human appetites—for wealth, dignity, and honor—are merely extensions of a desire for power. In addition, the argument that a commonwealth is best-suited to fulfill these desires is supported by Hobbes’s belief that when people are left to their own passions, with no civil authority or order, they are doomed to fall into a state of never-ending violence, in which any power gained is short-lived.