The source of every crime, is some defect of the understanding; or some error in reasoning; or some sudden force of the passions.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Crimes originate from flaws in reasoning, lack of understanding, or overwhelming emotions.
- In plain terms
- People commit crimes because they misunderstand things, reason poorly, or lose control of emotions.
- What can you take from it?
- Address root causes like ignorance or emotional impulsivity to prevent crime.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What prevents you from committing a crime?
- Is ignorance always an excuse?
Another view
Some crimes are premeditated and not solely due to reasoning errors or sudden passions.
More from Thomas Hobbes
No man's error becomes his own Law; nor obliges him to persist in it.
Permalink to quote #35 Another doctrine repugnant to civil society, is that whatsoever a man does against his conscience, is sin; and it dependeth on the presumption of making himsel…
Permalink to quote #37 As in the presence of the Master, the Servants are equall, and without any honour at all; So are the Subjects, in the presence of the Soveraign. And though the…
Permalink to quote #34
Related quotes
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
Edmund BurkeEdmund Burke quote #49 Mathematical reasoning may be regarded rather schematically as the exercise of a combination of two facilities, which we may call intuition and ingenuity. The …
Alan TuringAlan Turing quote #1 Her reasoning is full of tricks And butterfly suggestions, I know no point to which she sticks; She begs the simplest questions, And, when her premises are str…
Alfred CochraneAlfred Cochrane quote #1