John Locke Quotes
Curiosity in children, is but an appetite for knowledge. One 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 inquires neglected.
A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world.
Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.
Logic is the anatomy of thought.
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.
Variant: The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.
The dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than the prospect of good.
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.
But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression.
The thought that come often unsought, and, as it were, drop into the mind, are commonly the most valuable of any we have.
We are a kind of chameleons, taking our hue – the hue of our moral character, from those who are about us.
There cannot any one moral Rule be proposed, whereof a Man may not justly demand a Reason.
Reverie is when ideas float in our mind without reflection or regard of the understanding.
The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.
Where all is but dream, reasoning and arguments are of no use, truth and knowledge nothing
The necessity of believing without knowledge, nay often upon very slight grounds, in this fleeting state of action and blindness we are in, should make us more busy and careful to inform ourselves than constrain others.
We should have a great fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.
All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.
It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.
What worries you, masters you.
He that will have his son have a respect for him and his orders, must himself have a great reverence for his son.
The imagination is always restless and suggests a variety of thoughts, and the will, reason being laid aside, is ready for every extravagant project... He that will impartially survey the Nations of the World, will find so much of the Governments, Religion, and Manners brought in and continued amongst them by these means, that they will have but little Reverence for the Practices which are in use and credit amongst Men.
A dreamer lives forever, and a toiler dies in a day.
There is frequently more to be learned form the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.
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.
Religion, which should most distinguish us from the beasts, and ought most particularly elevate us, as rational creatures, above brutes, is that wherein men often appear most irrational, and more senseless than beasts.
The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.
Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature: these are the spur and reins whereby all mankind are set on work, and guided.
Virtue is harder to be got than knowledge of the world; and, if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered.
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.
No man’s knowledge here can go beyond his experience.
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.
Freedom of Nature is, to be under no other restraint but the Law of Nature.
He that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss.
Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.
An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; A villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards.
The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom.
Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.
He that uses his words loosely and unsteadily will either not be minded or not understood.
The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property.
The discipline of desire is the background of character.
It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the ocean.
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.
All wealth is the product of labor.
Whensoever therefore the legislative shall transgress this fundamental rule of society; and either by ambition, fear, folly or corruption, endeavour to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other, an absolute power over the lives, liberties, and estates of the people; by this breach of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into their hands for quite contrary ends, and it devolves to the people, who have a right to resume their original liberty, and, by the establishment of a new legislative, (such as they shall think fit) provide for their own safety and security, which is the end for which they are in society.
False and doubtful positions, relied upon as unquestionable maxims, keep those who build on them in the dark from truth.
Earthly minds, like mud walls, resist the strongest batteries; and though, perhaps, somethimes the force of a clear argument may make some impression, yet they nevertheless stand firm, keep out the enemy, truth, that would captivate or disturbe them.
There are very few lovers of truth, for truth's sake, even amongst those who persuade themselves that they are so.
A criminal who, having renounced reason ... hath, by the unjust violence and slaughter he hath committed upon one, declared war against all mankind, and therefore may be destroyed as a lion or tyger, one of those wild savage beasts with whom men can have no society nor security.
All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it.
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.
The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others.
If any man err from the right way, it is his own misfortune, no injury to thee; nor therefore art thou to punish him in the things of this life because thou supposest he will be miserable in that which is to come.
Fashion for the most part is nothing but the ostentation of riches.
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.
There cannot be greater rudeness than to interrupt another in the current of his discourse.
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not common.
Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him.
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.
Liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others.
I find every sect, as far as reason will help them, make us of it gladly; and where it fails them, they cry out, It is a matter of faith, and above reason.