Explore the most impactful and insightful quotes and sayings by John Locke, and enrich your perspective with the wisdom. Share these inspiring John Locke quotes pictures with your friends on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blogs, completely free. Here are the top 243 John Locke quotes for you to read and share.
Being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions. -- John Locke
The body of People may with Respect resist intolerable Tyranny. -- John Locke
For it will be very difficult to persuade men of sense that he who with dry eyes and satisfaction of mind can deliver his brother to the executioner to be burnt alive, does sincerely and heartily concern himself to save that brother from the flames of hell in the world to come. -- John Locke
Things of this world are in so constant a flux, that nothing remains long in the same state. -- John Locke
Who hath a prospect of the different state of perfect happiness or misery that attends all men after this life, depending on their behavior, the measures of good and evil that govern his choice are mightily changed. -- John Locke
Since nothing appears to me to give Children so much becoming Confidence and Behavior, and so raise them to the conversation of those above their Age, as Dancing. I think they should be taught to dance as soon as they are capable of learning it. -- John Locke
I attribute the little I know to my not having been ashamed to ask for information, and to my rule of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics that form their own peculiar professions and pursuits. -- John Locke
Is it worth the name of freedom to be at liberty to play the fool? -- John Locke
One hundred and one. No person above seventeen years of age shall have any benefit or protection of the law, or be capable of any place of profit or honor, who is not a member of some church or profession, having his name recorded in some one, and but one religious record at once. -- John Locke
A king is a mortal god on earth, unto whom the living God hath lent his own name as a great honour; but withal told him, he should die like a man, lest he should be proud, and flatter himself that God hath with his name imparted unto him his nature also. -- John Locke
He that has his chains knocked off, and the prison doors set open to him, is perfectly at liberty, because he may either go or stay, as he best likes; though his preference be determined to stay, by the darkness of the night, or illness of the weather, or want of other lodging. -- John Locke
Understanding like the eye; whilst it makes us see and perceive all things, takes no notice of itself; and it requires art and pains to set it at a distance and make it its own subject. -- John Locke
Children (nay, and men too) do most by example. -- John Locke
It is therefore worthwhile, to search out the bounds between opinion and knowledge; and examine by what measures, in things, whereof we have no certain knowledge, we ought to regulate our assent, and moderate our persuasions. -- John Locke
I do not say this, that I think there should be no difference of opinions in conversation, nor opposition in men's discourses ... 'Tis not the owning one's dissent from another, that I speak against, but the manner of doing it. -- John Locke
Whoever has used what means he is capable of, for the informing of himself, with a readiness to believe and obey what shall be taught and prescribed by Jesus, his Lord and King, is a true and faithful subject of Christ s kingdom:;; and cannot be thought to fail in any thing necessary to salvation. -- John Locke
So that, in effect, religion, which should most distinguish us from beasts, and ought most peculiarly to elevate us, as rational creatures, above brutes, is that wherein men often appear most irrational, and more senseless than beasts themselves. -- John Locke
Beating is the worst, and therefore the last means to be us'd in the correction of children, and that only in the cases of extremity, after all gently ways have been try'd, and proved unsuccessful; which, if well observ'd, there will very seldom be any need of blows. -- John Locke
Let not men think there is no truth, but in the sciences that they study, or the books that they read. -- John Locke
[H]e that thinks absolute power purifies men's blood, and corrects the baseness of human nature, need read the history of this, or any other age, to be convinced to the contrary. -- John Locke
Faith is the assent to any proposition not made out by the deduction of reason but upon the credit of the proposer. -- John Locke
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, all sincere; nothing too much; nothing wanting! -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
There are some Men of one, some but of two Syllogisms, and no more; and others that can but advance one step farther. -- John Locke
God is the place of spirits, as spaces are the places of bodies. -- John Locke
If you punish him for what he sees you practise yourself, he ... will be apt to interpret it the peevishness and arbitrary imperiousness of a father, who, without any ground for it, would deny his son the liberty and pleasure he takes himself. -- John Locke
Beware how in making the portraiture thou breakest the pattern: for divinity maketh the love of ourselves the pattern; the love of our neighbours but the portraiture. -- John Locke
The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property. -- John Locke
For though the law of nature be plain and intelligible to all rational creatures; yet men, being biased by their interest, as well as ignorant for want of study of it, are not apt to allow of it as a law binding to them in the application of it to their particular cases. -- John Locke
In the beginning, all the world was America. -- John Locke
Since the great foundation of fear is pain, the way to harden and fortify children against fear and danger is to accustom them to suffer pain. -- John Locke
Nay, if we may openly speak the truth, and as becomes one man to another, neither Pagan nor Mahometan, nor Jew, ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the commonwealth because of his religion. -- John Locke
The reservedness and distance that fathers keep, often deprive their sons of that refuge which would be of more advantage to them than an hundred rebukes or chidings. -- John Locke
How long have you been holding those words in your head, hoping to use them? -- John Locke
If the Gospel and the Apostles may be credited, no man can be a Christian without charity, and without that faith which works, not by force, but by love. -- John Locke
Moral laws are set as a curb and restraint to these exorbitant desires, which they cannot be but by rewards and punishments, that will over-balance the satisfaction any one shall propose to himself in the breach of the law. -- John Locke
Some eyes want spectacles to see things clearly and distinctly: but let not those that use them therefore say nobody can see clearly without them. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
Truth certainly would do well enough, if she were once left to shift for herself ... She is not taught by laws, nor has she any need of force, to procure her entrance into the minds of men. -- John Locke
The care of souls cannot belong to the civil magistrate. -- John Locke
Methinks Sir Robert should have carried his Monarchical Power one step higher and satisfied the World, that Princes might eat their Subjects too. -- John Locke
There cannot be greater rudeness than to interrupt another in the current of his discourse. -- John Locke
We are born to be, if we please, rational creatures, but it is use and exercise only that makes us so, and we are indeed so no farther than industry and application has carried us. -- John Locke
The chief art of learning is to attempt but a little at a time. -- John Locke
Defects and weakness in men's understandings, as well as other faculties, come from want of a right use of their own minds; I am apt to think, the fault is generally mislaid upon nature, and there is often a complaint of want of parts, when the fault lies in want of a due improvement of them. -- John Locke
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression -- John Locke
Hence it is a mistake to think, that the supreme or legislative power of any common-wealth, can do what it will, and dispose of the estates of the subject arbitrarily, or take any part of them at pleasure. -- John Locke
Neither the inveterateness of the mischief, nor the prevalency of the fashion, shall be any excuse for those who will not take care about the meaning of their own words, and will not suffer the insignificancy of their expressions to be inquired into. -- John Locke
'Tis true that governments cannot be supported without great charge, and it is fit everyone who enjoys a share of protection should pay out of his estate his proportion of the maintenance of it. -- John Locke
There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men. -- John Locke
A sound mind in a sound body, is a short, but full description of a Happy state in this World: he that has these two, has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them, will be little better for anything else. -- John Locke
Men's happiness or misery is [for the] most part of their own making. -- John Locke
The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it, into which a young gentleman should be enter'd by degrees, as he can bear it; and the earlier the better, so he be in safe and skillful hands to guide him. -- John Locke
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not common. -- John Locke
False and doubtful positions, relied upon as unquestionable maxims, keep those who build on them in the dark from truth. Such are usually the prejudices imbibed from education, party, reverence, fashion, interest, et cetera. -- John Locke
A man may live long, and die at last in ignorance of many truths, which his mind was capable of knowing, and that with certainty. -- John Locke
Revolt is the right of the people -- John Locke
There is no such way to gain admittance, or give defence to strange and absurd Doctrines, as to guard them round about with Legions of obscure, doubtful, and undefin'd Words. -- John Locke
Logic is the anatomy of thought. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
Any one reflecting upon the thought he has of the delight, which any present or absent thing is apt to produce in him, has the idea we call love. -- John Locke
He that denies any of the doctrines that Christ has delivered, to be true, denies him to be sent from God, and consequently to be the Messiah; and so ceases to be a Christian. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
Where there is no desire, there will be no industry. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
In the discharge of thy place set before thee the best examples; for imitation is a globe of precepts. -- John Locke
He that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss -- John Locke
Revelation in matters where reason cannot judge, or but probably, ought to be hearkened to. First, Whatever proposition is revealed, of whose truth our mind, by its natural faculties and notions, cannot judge, that is purely matter of faith, and above reason. -- John Locke
Whosoever is found variable, and changeth manifestly without manifest cause, giveth suspicion of corruption: therefore, always, when thou changest thine opinion or course, profess it plainly, and declare it, together with the reasons that move thee to change. -- John Locke
The picture of a shadow is a positive thing. -- John Locke
Error is none the better for being common, nor truth the worse for having lain neglected. -- John Locke
So difficult it is to show the various meanings and imperfections of words when we have nothing else but words to do it with. -- John Locke
Reason must be our last judge and guide in everything. -- John Locke
We are all a sort of chameleons, that still take a tincture from things near us; nor is it to be wonder'd at in children, who better understand what they see than what they hear. -- John Locke
[Individuals] have a right to defend themselves and recover by force what by unlawful force is taken from them. -- John Locke
The most precious of all possessions is power over ourselves. -- John Locke
Merit and good works is the end of man's motion; and conscience of the same is the accomplishment of man's rest; for if a man can be partaker of God's theatre, he shall likewise be partaker of God's rest. -- John Locke
All wealth is the product of labor. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
Anger is uneasiness or discomposure of the mind upon the receipt of any injury, with a present purpose of revenge -- John Locke
When we find out an Idea, by whose Intervention we discover the Connexion of two others, this is a Revelation from God to us, by the voice of Reason. -- John Locke
Set the mind to work, and apply the thoughts vigorously to the business, for it holds in the struggles of the mind, as in those of war, that to think we shall conquer is to conquer. -- John Locke
But since He gave it them for their benefit and the greatest conveniences of life they were capable to draw form it, it cannot be supposed He meant it should always remain common and uncultivated. He gave it to the use of the industrious and rational (and labour was to be his title to it) ... -- John Locke
Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues. -- John Locke
If we trace the progress of our minds, and with attention observe how it repeats, adds together, and unites its simple ideas received from sensation or reflection, it will lead us farther than at first, perhaps, we should have imagined. -- John Locke
Inuring children gently to suffer some degrees of pain without shrinking, is a way to gain firmness to their minds, and lay a foundation for courage and resolution in the future part of their lives. -- John Locke
We are born with faculties and powers capable almost of anything, such at least as would carry us farther than can easily be imagined: but it is only the exercise of those powers, which gives us ability and skill in any thing, and leads us towards perfection. -- John Locke
He that will make good use of any part of his life must allow a large part of it to recreation. -- John Locke
As people are walking all the time, in the same spot, a path appears. -- John Locke
Struggle is nature's way of strengthening it -- John Locke
He that makes use of another's fancy or necessity to sell ribbons or cloth dearer to him than to another man at the same time, cheats him. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
Liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others -- John Locke
Not time is the measure of movement but: ... each constant periodic appearance of ideas. -- John Locke
God hath woven into the principles of human nature such a tenderness for their off-spring, that there is little fear that parents should use their power with too much rigour; -- John Locke
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 tiger, one of those wild savage beasts with whom men can have no society nor security. -- John Locke
All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it. -- John Locke
Don't tell me what I can't do! -- John Locke
This is my destiny - I'm supposed to do this, dammit! Don't tell me what I can and can't do! -- John Locke
In transgressing the law of nature, the offender declares himself to live by another rule than that of reason and common equity Ch.2, 8 -- John Locke
Few men think, yet all will have opinions. Hence men's opinions are superficial and confused. -- John Locke
There are two sides, two players. One is light, the other is dark. -- John Locke
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 ... -- John Locke
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 -- John Locke
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts. -- John Locke
Curiosity in children is but an appetite for knowledge. -- John Locke
Our Business here is not to know all things, but those which concern our conduct. -- John Locke
He that in the ordinary affairs of life would admit of nothing but direct plain demonstration would be sure of nothing in this world but of perishing quickly. -- John Locke
Children generally hate to be idle; all the care then is that their busy humour should be constantly employed in something of use to them -- John Locke
It is only practice that improves our minds as well as bodies, and we must expect nothing from our understandings any farther than they are perfected by habits. -- John Locke
The senses at first let in particular Ideas, and furnish the yet empty Cabinet: And the Mind by degrees growing familiar with some of them, they are lodged in the Memory, and Names got to them. -- John Locke
Action is the great business of mankind, and the whole matter about which all laws are conversant. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
You shall find, that there cannot be a greater spur to the attaining what you would have the eldest learn, and know himself, than to set him upon teaching it his younger brothers and sisters. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
This is to think, that men are so foolish, that they take care to avoid what mischiefs may be done them by pole-cats, or foxes; but are content, nay, think it safety, to be devoured by lions. -- John Locke
God, when he makes the prophet, does not unmake the man. -- John Locke
Children have as much mind to show that they are free, that their own good actions come from themselves, that they are absolute and independent, as any of the proudest of you grown men, think of them as you please. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
And thus the community perpetually retains a supreme power of saving themselves from the attempts and designs of anybody, even of their legislators, whenever they shall be so foolish, or so wicked, as to lay and carry on designs against the liberties and properties of the subject. -- John Locke
With books we stand on the shoulders of giants. -- John Locke
Thus the ideas, as well as children, of our youth, often die before us: and our minds represent to us those tombs to which we are approaching; where, though the brass and marble remain, yet the inscriptions are effaced by time, and the imagery moulders away. -- John Locke
business of man is to be happy, -- John Locke
The Church which taught men not to keep faith with heretics, had no claim to toleration. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
It is vain to find fault with those arts of deceiving wherein men find pleasure to be deceived. -- John Locke
The only defense against the world is a thorough knowledge of it. -- John Locke
Whosoever will list himself under the banner of Christ, must, in the first place and above all things, make war upon his own lusts and vices. It is in vain for any man to usurp the name of Christian, without holiness of life, purity of manners, benignity and meekness of spirit. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
These two, I say, viz. external material things, as the objects of SENSATION, and the operations of our own minds within, as the objects of REFLECTION, are to me the only originals from whence all our ideas take their beginnings. -- John Locke
That which is static and repetitive is boring. That which is dynamic and random is confusing. In between lies art. -- John Locke
The next thing is by gentle degrees to accustom children to those things they are too much afraid of. But here great caution is to be used, that you do not make too much haste, nor attempt this cure too early, for fear lest you increase the mischief instead of remedying it. -- John Locke
How much education may reconcile young people to pain and sufference, the examples of Sparta do sufficiently shew; and they who have once brought themselves not to think bodily pain the greatest of evils, or that which they ought to stand most in fear of, have made no small advance toward virtue. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender. -- John Locke
[M]an 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. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
He that will have his son have respect for him and his orders, must himself have a great reverence for his son. -- John Locke
Personal Identity depends on Consciousness not on Substance -- John Locke
As it is in the body, so it is in the mind; practice makes it what it is, and most even of those excellencies, what are looked on as natural endowments, will be found, when examined into more narrowly, to be the product of exercise, and to be raised to that pitch, only by repeated actions. -- John Locke
I am sure, zeal or love for truth can never permit falsehood to be used in the defense of it. -- John Locke
Though the water running in the fountain be every ones, yet who can doubt, but that in the pitcher is his only who drew it out? -- John Locke
Liberty is not an Idea belonging to Volition, or preferring; but to the Person having the Power of doing, or forbearing to do, according as the Mind shall chuse or direct. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
The greatest part of mankind ... are given up to labor, and enslaved to the necessity of their mean condition; whose lives are worn out only in the provisions for living. -- John Locke
Justice and truth are the common ties of society -- John Locke
Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him. -- John Locke
If we will disbelieve everything, because we cannot certainly know all things, we shall do much what as wisely as he who would not use his legs, but sit still and perish, because he had no wings to fly. -- John Locke
Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves poison the fountain. -- John Locke
The difference, so observable in men's understandings and parts, does not arise so much from their natural faculties, as acquired habits. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
The necessity of pursuing true happiness is the foundation of all liberty- Happiness, in its full extent, is the utmost pleasure we are capable of. -- John Locke
To be rational is so glorious a thing, that two-legged creatures generally content themselves with the title. -- John Locke
Words, in their primary or immediate signification, stand for nothing but the ideas in the mind of him who uses them. -- John Locke
I esteem it above all things necessary to distinguish exactly the business of civil government from that of religion and to settle the just bounds that lie between the one and the other. -- John Locke
As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivated, and can use the product of, so much is his property. He by his labour does, as it were, enclose it from the common. -- John Locke
Virtue is harder to be got than knowledge of the world; and, if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours. -- John Locke
Truths are not the better nor the worse for their obviousness or difficulty, but their value is to be measured by their usefulness and tendency. -- John Locke
The dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than the prospect of good. -- John Locke
The great art to learn much is to undertake a little at a time. -- John Locke
Certain subjects yield a general power that may be applied in any direction and should be studied by all. -- John Locke
He that uses his words loosely and unsteadily will either not be minded or not understood. -- John Locke
Affectation is an awkward and forced imitation of what should be genuine and easy, wanting the beauty that accompanies what is natural. -- John Locke
The legislative cannot transfer the power of making laws to any other hands: for it being but a delegated power from the people, they who have it cannot pass it over to others. -- John Locke
Fashion for the most part is nothing but the ostentation of riches. -- John Locke
I doubt not, but from self-evident Propositions, by necessary Consequences, as incontestable as those in Mathematics, the measures of right and wrong might be made out. -- John Locke
Power to do good is the true and lawful act of aspiring; for good thoughts (though God accept them), yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act; and that cannot be without power and place, as the vantage and commanding ground. -- John Locke
What humanity abhors, custom reconciles and recommends to us. -- John Locke
One or two particulars may suggest hints of enquiry, and they do well who take those hints; but if they turn them into conclusions, and make them presently general rules, they are forward indeed, but it is only to impose on themselves by propositions assumed for truths without sufficient warrant. -- John Locke
Truth, like gold, is not less so for being newly brought out of the mine. -- John Locke
Firmness or stiffness of the mind is not from adherence to truth, but submission to prejudice. -- John Locke
When Fashion hath once Established, what Folly or craft began, Custom makes it Sacred, and 'twill be thought impudence or madness, to contradict or question it. -- John Locke
Where there is no property there is no injustice. -- John Locke
Children should from the beginning be bred up in an abhorrence of killing or tormenting any living creature; and be taught not to spoil or destroy any thing, unless it be for the preservation or advantage of some other that is nobler. -- John Locke
In my opinion, understanding who your target audience is, and what they want, and writing to them (and only them!) is the most important component of being successful as an author. -- John Locke
It is ambition enough to be employed as an under-labourer in clearing the ground a little, and removing some of the rubbish which lies in the way to knowledge. -- John Locke
There's always a random element to taking lives. -- John Locke
It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of the truth. -- John Locke
It is labour indeed that puts the difference on everything. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
To give a man full knowledge of morality, I would send him to no other book than the New Testament. -- John Locke
The least and most imperceptible impressions received in our infancy have consequences very important and of long duration. -- John Locke
I thought that I had no time for faith nor time to pray, then I saw an armless man saying his Rosary with his feet. -- John Locke
No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience. -- John Locke
Every man must some time or other be trusted to himself. -- John Locke
To ask at what time a man has first any ideas is to ask when he begins to perceive; having ideas and perception being the same thing. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
Many a good poetic vein is buried under a trade, and never produces any thing for want of improvement. -- John Locke
I have spent more than half a lifetime trying to express the tragic moment. -- John Locke
Thus parents, by humouring and cockering them when little, corrupt the principles of nature in their children, and wonder afterwards to taste the bitter waters, when they themselves have poison'd the fountain. -- John Locke
Consciousness is the perception of what passes in man's own mind. -- John Locke
The greatest part cannot know, and therefore they must believe. -- John Locke
It is easier for a tutor to command than to teach. -- John Locke
Though the familiar use of things about us take off our wonder, yet it cures not our ignorance. -- John Locke
Virtue is everywhere that which is thought praiseworthy; and nothing else but that which has the allowance of public esteem is called virtue. -- John Locke
The better to understand the nature, manner, and extent of our knowledge, one thing is carefully to be observed concerning the ideas we have; and that is, that some of them are simple and some complex. -- John Locke
And when a countryman says the cold freezes water, though the word freezing seems to import some action, yet truly it signifies nothing, but the effect, videlicet that water, that was before fluid, is become hard and consistent, without containing any idea of the action whereby it is done. -- John Locke
Untruth being unacceptable to the mind of man, there is no other defence left for absurdity but obscurity. -- John Locke
If by gaining knowledge we destroy our health, we labour for a thing that will be useless in our hands. -- John Locke
If all be a Dream, then he doth but dream that he makes the Question; and so it is not much matter that a waking Man should answer him. -- John Locke
For those who either perceive but dully, or retain the ideas that come into their minds but ill, who cannot readily excite or compound them, will have little matter to think on. -- John Locke
The thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were, drop into the mind, are commonly the most valuable of any we have. -- John Locke
Crooked things may be as stiff and unflexible as streight: and Men may be as positive and peremptory in Error as in Truth. -- John Locke
Don't let the things you don't have prevent you from using what you do have. -- John Locke
That which parents should take care of ... is to distinguish between the wants of fancy, and those of nature. -- John Locke
Now, I appeal to the consciences of those who persecute, wound, torture, and kill other men on the excuse of 'religion', whether they do this in a spirit of friendship and kindness. -- John Locke
The mind is furnished with ideas by experience alone -- John Locke
Success in fighting means not coming at your opponent the way he wants to fight you. -- John Locke
Mathematical proofs, like diamonds, are hard and clear, and will be touched with nothing but strict reasoning. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
Reverie is when ideas float in our mind without reflection or regard of the understanding. -- John Locke
The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others. -- John Locke
When we know our own strength, we shall the better know what to undertake with hopes of success ... -- John Locke
Try all things, hold fast that which is good. -- John Locke
It is one thing to persuade, another to command; one thing to press with arguments, another with penalties. -- John Locke
What if everything that happened here, happened for a reason? -- John Locke
Making laws with penalties of death, and consequently -- John Locke
Curiosity should be as carefully cherish'd in children, as other appetites suppress'd. -- John Locke
Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent. -- John Locke
We are like chameleons, we take our hue and the color of our moral character, from those who are around us. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
It is practice alone that brings the powers of the mind, as well as those of the body, to their perfection. -- John Locke
Where all is but dream, reasoning and arguments are of no use, truth and knowledge nothing. -- John Locke
The discipline of desire is the background of character. -- John Locke
Men in great fortunes are strangers to themselves, and while they are in the puzzle of business, they have no time to tend their health either of body or mind. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
Knowledge is grateful to the understanding, as light to the eyes. -- John Locke
The visible mark of extraordinary wisdom and power appear so plainly in all the works of creation. -- John Locke
Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself. -- John Locke
There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding. -- John Locke
Government has no other end, but the preservation of property. -- John Locke
There are a thousand ways to Wealth, but only one way to Heaven. -- John Locke
Beasts abstract not. -- John Locke
I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and let it out completely, along with my soul. -- John Locke
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. -- John Locke
Practice conquers the habit of doing, without reflecting on the rule. -- John Locke