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John Locke

John Locke Quotes

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Famous John Locke Quotes

“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 but little the better for anything else. Men’s happiness or misery is most part of their own making. He, whose mind directs not wisely, will never take the right way; and he, whose body is crazy and feeble, will never be able to advance in it.”

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Book:Some Thoughts Concerning Education
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“Earthly minds, like mud walls, resist the strongest batteries; and though, perhaps, sometimes 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.”

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Book:An essay concerning human understanding ... The twentieth edition, etc
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“Every Man being conscious to himself, That he thinks, and that which his Mind is employ'd about whilst thinking, being the Ideas, that are there, 'tis past doubt, that Men have in their Minds several Ideas, such as are those expressed by the words, Whiteness, Hardness, Sweetness, Thinking, Motion, Man, Elephant, Army, Drunkenness, and others: It is in the first place then to be inquired, How he comes by them? I know it is a received Doctrine, That Men have native Ideas, and original Characters stamped upon their Minds, in their very first Being.”

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Author:John Locke
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“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.”

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Book:The Locke Reader: Selections from the Works of John Locke with a General Introduction and Commentary
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“Let us suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas; how comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from experience.”

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Author:John Locke
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“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.”

MenMindMayLongLastsDiesKnowingIgnoranceCapableCertainty
Book:Philosophical Works: Preliminary discourse by the editor. On the conduct of the understanding. An essay concerning human understanding
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“Books seem to me to be pestilent things, and infect all that trade in them...with something very perverse and brutal. Printers, binders, sellers, and others that make a trade and gain out of them have universally so odd a turn and corruption of mind that they have a way of dealing peculiar to themselves, and not conformed to the good of society and that general fairness which cements mankind.”

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Author:John Locke
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“Let the awe [the teacher] has upon [children's] minds be so tempered with the constant marks of tenderness and good will, that affection may spur them to their duty, and make them find a pleasure in complying with his dictates. This will bring them with satisfaction to their tutor; make them hearken to him, as to one who is their friend, that cherishes them, and takes pains for their good; this will keep their thoughts easy and free, whilst they are with him, the only temper wherein the mind is capable of receiving new information, and of admitting into itself those impressions.”

MindMayChildrenPainEasyPleasureTeacherTeachingInformationDutyCapableMarkConstantAffectionSatisfactionImpressionAweCherishTemperReceivingTendernessGood WillSpursAdmittingTutorNew InformationComplying
Book:Locke, Berkely & Hume
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“Untruth being unacceptable to the mind of man, there is no other defence left for absurdity but obscurity.”

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Book:Of human understanding. A defence of Mr. Locke's opinion concerning personal identity. Of the conduct of the understanding. Some thoughts concerning reading and study for a gentleman. Elements of natural philosophy. A new method of common-place-book
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“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.”

IfsMenMindReasonUseLostNaturalBenefitsGoldPrejudiceAssumingAppearanceEvery ManCarrieSuperficialSpoiledPresumptionTouchstones
Book:An essay concerning human understanding. Also, extr. from the author's works, i. Analysis of mr. Locke's doctrine of ideas [&c.].
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“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.”

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Author:John Locke
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“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.”

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Book:Locke's essays. An essay concerning human understanding. And A treatise on the conduct of the understanding. With the author's last additions
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“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.”

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Book:Some Thoughts Concerning Education: And, Of the Conduct of the Understanding
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“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.”

ThinkingMenWantMindWellsUseLyingUnderstandingWeaknessFaultsDuesImprovementFacultyComplaintsDefects
Book:Some Thoughts Concerning Education: (Including Of the Conduct of the Understanding)
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“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.”

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Book:Locke's essays. An essay concerning human understanding. And A treatise on the conduct of the understanding. With the author's last additions
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“This is that which I think great readers are apt to be mistaken in; those who have read of everything, are thought to understand everything too; but it is not always so. Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours. We are of the ruminating kind , and it is not enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections:;; unless we chew them over again, they will not give us strength and nourishment.”

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Book:Some Thoughts Concerning Education: And, Of the Conduct of the Understanding
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“The first step to get this noble and manly steadiness, is... carefully keep children from frights of all kinds, when they are young. ...Instances of such who in a weak timorous mind, have borne, all their whole lives through, the effects of a fright when they were young, are every where to be seen, and therefore as much as may be to be prevented.”

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Book:The works of John Locke ...
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“The mind being, as I have declared, furnished with a great number of the simple ideas conveyed in by the senses, as they are found in exterior things, or by reflection on its own operations, take notice, also, that a certain number of these simple ideas go constantly together... which, by inadvertency, we apt afterward to talk of and condier as one simple idea.”

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Author:John Locke
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“Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.”

ThinkingInspirationalMindMotivationalScienceReadingEducationKnowledgeLearningMaterialsReaderExperienceEducationalLiteracyHospitalityLove Of ReadingEducation And KnowledgeLearning To ReadThinking MindEducation And LiteracyKnowledge And LearningKnowledge LearningReading And LiteracyMind ReadingLearning KnowledgeMind Thinking
Book:The Works of John Locke: Essay concerning human understanding (concluded) Defence of Mr. Locke's opinion concerning personal identity. Of the conduct of the understanding. Some thoughts concerning reading and study for a gentlemen. Elements of natural philosophy. New method of a common-place-book
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“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 the better for anything else.”

WorldWantMindLittlesTwoStatesBodyHappinessWishSoundThis WorldContentmentDescriptionSound MindSound Body
Book:Some Thoughts Concerning Education: And, Of the Conduct of the Understanding
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“The acts of the mind, wherein it exerts its power over simple ideas, are chiefly these three: 1. Combining several simple ideas into one compound one, and thus all complex ideas are made. 2. The second is bringing two ideas, whether simple or complex, together, and setting them by one another so as to take a view of them at once, without uniting them into one, by which it gets all its ideas of relations. 3. The third is separating them from all other ideas that accompany them in their real existence: this is called abstraction, and thus all its general ideas are made.”

MindMadeTwoIdeasRealTogetherThreeSimpleViewsExistenceThirdsRelationComplexesSettingSettingsAbstractionCompoundsAccompanySeparatingCombiningUnitingSimple Ideas
Author:John Locke
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