Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher and political theorist, best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory. He is considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy.

Quotes

Force, and fraud, are in war the two cardinal virtues.
The life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
Humans are driven by a perpetual and restless desire of power.
All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called "Facts". They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.
How could a state be governed, or protected in its foreign relations if every individual remained free to obey or not to obey the law according to his private opinion.
Government is necessary, not because man is naturally bad... but because man is by nature more individualistic than social.
Appetite, with an opinion of attaining, is called hope; the same, without such opinion, despair.

Hope
Leisure is the mother of philosophy.

Philosophy