John locke quotes

Whenever legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.

A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world.

Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.

Tis a Mistake to think this Fault [tyranny] is proper only to Monarchies; other Forms of Government are liable to it, as well as that. For where-ever the Power that is put in any hands for the Government of the People, and the Preservation of their Properties, is applied to other ends, and made use of to impoverish, harass, or subdue them to the Arbitrary and Irregular Commands of those that have it: There it presently becomes Tyranny, whether those that thus use it are one or many.

But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression

He that would seriously set upon the search of truth, ought in the first place to prepare his mind with a love of it. For he that loves it not, will not take much pains to get it; nor be much concerned when he misses it.

I pretend not to teach, but to inquire.

It is easier for a tutor to command than to teach.

Truth, like gold, is not less so for being newly brought out of the mine.

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society and made by the legislative power vested in it and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, arbitrary will of another man.

Firmness or stiffness of the mind is not from adherence to truth, but submission to prejudice.

There are a thousand ways to Wealth, but only one way to Heaven.

Practice conquers the habit of doing, without reflecting on the rule.

Reason is natural revelation, whereby the eternal father of light, and fountain of all knowledge, communicates to mankind that portion of truth which he has laid within the reach of their natural faculties: revelation is natural reason enlarged by a new set of discoveries communicated by God. . . .

The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men. It has God for its author; salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture for its matter. It is all pure.

The body of People may with Respect resist intolerable Tyranny.

I find every sect, as far as reason will help them, make use of it gladly: and where it fails them, they cry out, It is a matter of faith, and above reason.

Wherever Law ends, Tyranny begins.

The mind is furnished with ideas by experience alone

Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature

The most precious of all possessions is power over ourselves.

To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues.

The great question which, in all ages, has disturbed mankind, and brought on them the greatest part of their mischiefs ... has been, not whether be power in the world, nor whence it came, but who should have it.

I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.

The least and most imperceptible impressions received in our infancy have consequences very important and of long duration.

The thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were, drop into the mind, are commonly the most valuable of any we have.

How long have you been holding those words in your head, hoping to use them?

Habits wear more constantly and with greatest force than reason, which, when we have most need of it, is seldom fairly consulted, and more rarely obeyed

Success in fighting means not coming at your opponent the way he wants to fight you.

No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience.

Faith is the assent to any proposition not made out by the deduction of reason but upon the credit of the proposer.

Revolt is the right of the people

We are all a sort of chameleons, that still take a tincture from things near us: nor is it to be wondered at in children, who better understand what they see, than what they hear.

The business of education is not to make the young perfect in any one of the sciences, but so to open and dispose their minds as may best make them - capable of any, when they shall apply themselves to it.

As usurpation is the exercise of power which another has a right to, so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which nobody can have a right to.

No peace and security among mankind-let alone common friendship-can ever exist as long as people think that governments get their authority from God and that religion is to be propagated by force of arms.

It is one thing to persuade, another to command; one thing to press with arguments, another with penalties.

If by gaining knowledge we destroy our health, we labour for a thing that will be useless in our hands.

The greatest part cannot know, and therefore they must believe.

The tendency to cruelty should be watched in children and if they incline to any such cruelty, they should be taught the contrary usage. For the custom of tormenting and killing other animals will, by degrees, harden their hearts even toward man. Children should from the beginning, be brought up in an abhorrence of killing or tormenting living beings.

He that will have his son have respect for him and his orders, must himself have a great reverence for his son.

The Church which taught men not to keep faith with heretics, had no claim to toleration.

Where there is no desire, there will be no industry.

The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.

That which is static and repetitive is boring. That which is dynamic and random is confusing. In between lies art.

Vague and mysterious forms of speech, and abuse of language, have so long passed for mysteries of science; and hard or misapplied words with little or no meaning have, by prescription, such a right to be mistaken for deep learning and height of speculation, that it will not be easy to persuade either those who speak or those who hear them, that they are but the covers of ignorance and hindrance of true knowledge.

Curiosity in children, is but an appetite for knowledge. The great reason why children abandon themselves wholly to silly pursuits and trifle away their time insipidly is, because they find their curiosity balked, and their inquiries neglected.

All men by nature are equal in that equal right that every man hath to his natural freedom, without being subjected to the will or authority of any other man; being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.

[Individuals] have a right to defend themselves and recover by force what by unlawful force is taken from them.

If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.

One unerring mark of the love of truth is not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is built upon will warrant.

Man is not permitted without censure to follow his own thoughts in the search of truth, when they lead him ever so little out of the common road.

To love our neighbor as ourselves is such a truth for regulating human society, that by that alone one might determine all the cases in social morality.

Our Business here is not to know all things, but those which concern our conduct.

Justice and truth are the common ties of society

Mathematical proofs, like diamonds, are hard and clear, and will be touched with nothing but strict reasoning.

The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property.

Logic is the anatomy of thought.

It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.

Where there is no property there is no injustice.

There are two sides, two players. One is light, the other is dark.

Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company, and reflection must finish him.

Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses.

Who lies for you will lie against you.

Men's happiness or misery is [for the] most part of their own making.

With books we stand on the shoulders of giants.

He that will make good use of any part of his life must allow a large part of it to recreation.

Don't tell me what I can't do!

Men in great place are thrice servants; servants of the sovereign state, servants of fame, and servants of business; so as they have no freedom, neither in their persons, nor in their actions, nor in their times. It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.

Every man carries about him a touchstone, if he will make use of it, to distinguish substantial gold from superficial glitterings, truth from appearances. And indeed the use and benefit of this touchstone, which is natural reason, is spoiled and lost only by assuming prejudices, overweening presumption, and narrowing our minds.

If any one shall claim a power to lay and levy taxes on the people by his own authority and without such consent of the people, he thereby invades the fundamental law of property, and subverts the end of government.

Government has no other end, but the preservation of property.

Knowledge being to be had only of visible and certain truth, error is not a fault of our knowledge, but a mistake of our judgment, giving assent to that which is not true.

Our deeds disguise us. People need endless time to try on their deeds, until each knows the proper deeds for him to do. But every day, every hour, rushes by. There is no time.

All the entertainment and talk of history is nothing almost but fighting and killing: and the honour and renown that is bestowed on conquerors (who for the most part are but the great butchers of mankind) farther mislead growing youth, who by this means come to think slaughter the laudable business of mankind, and the most heroic of virtues.

Don't let the things you don't have prevent you from using what you do have.

Liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others

What if everything that happened here, happened for a reason?

Where there is no law there is no freedom.

The chief art of learning is to attempt but a little at a time.

To prejudge other men's notions before we have looked into them is not to show their darkness but to put out our own eyes.

When we know our own strength, we shall the better know what to undertake with hopes of success.

Error is none the better for being common, nor truth the worse for having lain neglected.

There cannot any one moral rule be proposed whereof a man may not justly demand a reason. Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has any right to but himself. The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which would be unlawful for them to do themselves.

Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.

Fashion for the most part is nothing but the ostentation of riches.

There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.

Try all things, hold fast that which is good.

Reason must be our last judge and guide in everything.

Curiosity in children is but an appetite for knowledge.

I have no reason to suppose that he, who would take away my Liberty, would not when he had me in his Power, take away everything else.

The improvement of the understanding is for two ends; first, for our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver and make out that knowledge to others.

All wealth is the product of labor.

God, when he makes the prophet, does not unmake the man.

As people are walking all the time, in the same spot, a path appears.

Till a man can judge whether they be truths or not, his understanding is but little improved, and thus men of much reading, though greatly learned, but may be little knowing.

Things of this world are in so constant a flux, that nothing remains long in the same state.

Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip.

Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.

The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom.

The only thing we are naturally afraid of is pain, or loss of pleasure. And because these are not annexed to any shape, colour, or size of visible objects, we are frighted of none of them, till either we have felt pain from them, or have notions put into us that they will do us harm.

The picture of a shadow is a positive thing.

If the innocent honest Man must quietly quit all he has for Peace sake, to him who will lay violent hands upon it, I desire it may be considered what kind of Peace there will be in the World, which consists only in Violence and Rapine; and which is to be maintained only for the benefit of Robbers and Oppressors.

The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which would be unlawful for them to do themselves.

Any single man must judge for himself whether circumstances warrant obedience or resistance to the commands of the civil magistrate; we are all qualified, entitled, and morally obliged to evaluate the conduct of our rulers. This political judgment, moreover, is not simply or primarily a right, but like self-preservation, a duty to God. As such it is a judgment that men cannot part with according to the God of Nature. It is the first and foremost of our inalienable rights without which we can preserve no other.

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.

Whoever uses force without Right ... puts himself into a state of War with those, against whom he uses it, and in that state all former Ties are canceled, all other Rights cease, and every one has a Right to defend himself, and to resist the Aggressor.

It is practice alone that brings the powers of the mind, as well as those of the body, to their perfection.

Is it worth the name of freedom to be at liberty to play the fool?

Memory is the power to revive again in our minds those ideas which after imprinting have disappeared, or have been laid aside out of sight.

Those are not at all to be tolerated who deny the being of God. Promises, covenants, and oaths, which are the bonds of human society, can have no hold upon an atheist. The taking away of God, though but even in thought, dissolves all.

Who are we to tell anyone what they can or can't do?

The great art to learn much is to undertake a little at a time.

The discipline of desire is the background of character.

Knowledge is grateful to the understanding, as light to the eyes.

What worries you, masters you.

Consciousness is the perception of what passes in man's own mind.

He that uses his words loosely and unsteadily will either not be minded or not understood.

The visible mark of extraordinary wisdom and power appear so plainly in all the works of creation.

All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.

The power of the legislative being derived from the people by a positive voluntary grant and institution, can be no other than what that positive grant conveyed, which being only to make laws, and not to make legislators, the legislative can have no power to transfer their authority of making laws, and place it in other hands.

Action is the great business of mankind, and the whole matter about which all laws are conversant.

There cannot be greater rudeness than to interrupt another in the current of his discourse.

A father would do well, as his son grows up, and is capable of it, to talk familiarly with him; nay, ask his advice, and consult with him about those things wherein he has any knowledge or understanding. By this, the father will gain two things, both of great moment. The sooner you treat him as a man, the sooner he will begin to be one; and if you admit him into serious discourses sometimes with you, you will insensibly raise his mind above the usual amusements of youth, and those trifling occupations which it is commonly wasted in.