# Of Crimes, Excuses, and Extenuations explained — Leviathan > Chapter companion for Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes. ## What happens Hobbes distinguishes between sin and crime, defines crime as a sin that can be judged by human authority, and examines the sources of crime: ignorance, erroneous opinion, and passion. He discusses how ignorance of the law of nature never excuses, while ignorance of civil law may excuse in certain circumstances, and analyzes the degrees of crime based on the malignity of the cause, contagion of example, mischief of effect, and circumstances of time, place, and person. ## Themes in this chapter ### Justice and Law Hobbes defines crime as a sin that can be judged by human authority, distinguishes between sin and crime, and discusses how ignorance, error, and passion affect culpability. ### Sovereignty and Absolute Power The chapter emphasizes that any liberty granted by the sovereign that is inconsistent with sovereignty is a sin, and that disobedience or resistance to public ministers constitutes a crime. ### Human Nature and Passions Hobbes examines how sudden passion versus premeditation affects the degree of crime, and notes that the first motions of the mind are not sins unless they lead to action. ## Key lines > A crime, is a sin, consisting in the committing, by deed or word, of that which the law forbiddeth, or the omission of what it hath commanded. So that every crime is a sin; but not every sin a crime. A crime is a sin that involves doing or saying something forbidden by law, or failing to do what the law commands; thus, all crimes are sins, but not all sins are crimes. _Hobbes distinguishes between sin (any violation of law, including intent) and crime (a sin that can be judged by a human court)._ > Ignorance of the law of Nature excuseth no man, because every man that hath attained to the use of reason is supposed to know he ought not to do to another what he would not have done to himself. No one can be excused for being ignorant of the law of nature, because anyone who has reason should know the golden rule: do not do to others what you would not want done to yourself. _Hobbes argues that the fundamental moral law is universally knowable through reason, so ignorance of it is never a valid excuse._ > A crime arising from a sudden passion is not so great as when the same ariseth from long meditation; for in the former case there is a place for extenuation, in the common infirmity of human nature; but he that doth it with premeditation, has used circumspection, and cast his eye on the law, on the punishment, and on the consequence thereof to human society; all which, in committing the crime, he hath contemned and postposed to his own appetite. A crime committed in the heat of passion is less serious than one done with premeditation, because sudden passion can be excused by human weakness, whereas a planned crime shows deliberate disregard for the law, punishment, and social consequences. _Hobbes explains that premeditation indicates a greater contempt for law and society, making the crime more severe._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leviathan_se/chapters/xxvii-of-crimes-excuses-and-extenuations - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leviathan_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leviathan_se/chapters