Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Book ·196 of 348
"Nasty, brutish, and short."
They never said that.
What people say
"Nasty, brutish, and short."
What was actually said
"Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Thomas Hobbes — Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)
Why it stuck
Hobbes listed five descriptors of life in the state of nature. The short list preserves the punchy ones; memory drops the two duller adjectives at the start.
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.