Book cover Leviathan

Feare And Liberty Consistent

Leviathan
Published by:
Thomas Hobbes
Block: 268f0e9db8a143ce9455b58b6b22fbc9

Feare And Liberty Consistent

Feare and Liberty are consistent; as when a man throweth his goods into the Sea for Feare the ship should sink, he doth it neverthelesse very willingly, and may refuse to doe it if he will: It is therefore the action, of one that was Free; so a man sometimes pays his debt, only for Feare of Imprisonment, which because no body hindred him from detaining, was the action of a man at Liberty. And generally all actions which men doe in Common-wealths, for Feare of the law, or actions, which the doers had Liberty to omit.