Quotessence
Home / Authors / John Locke
John Locke

John Locke Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenMindIfsReasonShouldThinkingMayChildrenUsePhilosophicalIdeasLawLibertyPeopleWayLittlesPropertyScienceWorldGovernment

Famous John Locke Quotes

“..every Man has a Property in his own Person. This no Body has any Right to but himself. The Labour of his Body, and the Work of his Hands, we may say, are properly his. .... The great and chief end therefore, of Mens uniting into Commonwealths, and putting themselves under Government, is the Preservation of their Property.”

MenMayPersonsEndsBodyHandsGovernmentLibertyPropertyEvery ManChiefsLabourPreservationFreedom And LibertyIntriguingFreedom LibertyProperty RightsCommonwealthUniting
Author:John Locke
Create image

“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.”

PeopleWarStatesFreedomLibertySlaveryPropertyLibertarianObedienceEndeavorArbitraryFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyProperty RightsLimited GovernmentLegislatorsRights And FreedomsLimited FreedomAmerica Freedom
Book:Two Treatises of Government: With a Supplement, Patriarcha, by Robert Filmer
Create image

“Thirdly, the supreme power cannot take from any man any part of his property without his own consent: for the preservation of property being the end of government, and that for which men enter into society, it necessarily supposes and requires, that the people should have property, without which they must be supposed to lose that, by entering into society, which was the end for which they entered into it; too gross an absurdity for any man to own.”

PeopleMenShouldEndsGovernmentLosesShould HavePropertySupremeAbsurdityConsentPreservationEnteringGrossSupreme Power
Book:The Second Treatise of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration
Create image

“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.”

CommunityLibertySubjectsDesignLaysPropertyFoolishSupremeSavingWickedLegislatorsSupreme Power
Book:The Second Treatise on Civil Government
Create image

“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.”

PeopleThinkingWellsMadeEndsUseHandsGovernmentFormMistakePropertyFaultsTyrannyCommandPreservationArbitraryMonarchyForms Of GovernmentProperty RightsLiable
Book:Locke: Two Treatises of Government Student Edition
Create image

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

MenPersonsLibertySelf EsteemPhilosophicalPropertyLibertarianEvery ManOwnershipPrivate PropertyProperty RightsIndividual RightsLibertarian PartyEvery Man For HimselfProperty OwnershipEnlightenment Thinkers
Book:The Locke Reader: Selections from the Works of John Locke with a General Introduction and Commentary
Create image