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John Locke

John Locke Quotes

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Famous John Locke Quotes

“If, then, there must be something eternal, let us see what sort of Being it must be. And to that it is very obvious to Reason, that it must necessarily be a cogitative Being. For it is as impossible to conceive that ever bare incogitative Matter should produce a thinking intelligent Being, as that nothing should of itself produce Matter.”

IfsThinkingShouldMatterReasonImpossibleProduceEternalIntelligentObviousIf Then
Book:An Essay Concerning Human Understanding: An analysis of Mr. Locke's Doctrine of ideas .... A defense of Mr. Locke's Opinion concerning personal identity .... A treatise on the conduct of the understanding. Some thoughts concerning reading and study for a gentleman. Elements of natural philosophy. A new method of a common place book. Extracted from the author's works. With a life of the author
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“Nature never makes excellent things, for mean or no uses: and it is hardly to be conceived, that our infinitely wise Creator, should make so admirable a Faculty, as the power of Thinking, that Faculty which comes nearest the Excellency of his own incomprehensible Being, to be so idlely and uselesly employ'd, at least 1/4 part of its time here, as to think constantly, without remembering any of those Thoughts, without doing any good to it self or others, or being anyway useful to any other part of Creation.”

ThinkingShouldMeanSelfUseRememberScienceUnderstandingNatureWiseCreationExcellenceCreatorExcellentFacultyAdmirable
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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“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.”

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

IfsMenShouldHeartChildrenAnimalTaughtDegreesKillingContraryCrueltyTendenciesCustomsUsageInclineAbhorrenceKilling Others
Author:John Locke
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“[I]t being reasonable and just, I should have a right to destroy that which threatens me with destruction: for by the fundamental law of nature, man being to be preserved as much as possible, when all cannot be preserved, the safety of the innocent is to be preferred: and one may destroy a man who makes war upon him, or has discovered an enmity to his being, for the same reason that he may kill a Wolf or a lion.”

MenShouldMayWarReasonLawDestructionShould HaveSafetyFundamentalsInnocentReasonableLionsLaws Of NatureEnmity
Book:The Second Treatise of Government: (An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government), And, A Letter Concerning Toleration
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“He would be laughed at, that should go about to make a fine dancer out of a country hedger, at past fifty. And he will not have much better success, who shall endeavour, at that age, to make a man reason well, or speak handsomely, who has never been used to it, though you should lay before him a collection of all the best precepts of logic or oratory.”

MenShouldWellsCountryReasonWould BeAgePastUsedSpeakFineLogicLaysFiftyDancerCollectionsLaughedEndeavourAll The BestOratory
Book:An essay concerning human understanding ... The twentieth edition, etc
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“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.”

MenShouldEarthDiesNamesProudKingsMortalsHonourBe Proud
Book:The Conduct of the Understanding: Essays, Moral, Economical, and Political
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“A young man before he leaves the shelter of his father's house, and the guard of a tutor, should be fortify'd with resolution, and made acquainted with men, to secure his virtues, lest he should be led into some ruinous course, or fatal precipice, before he is sufficiently acquainted with the dangers of conversation, and his steadiness enough not to yield to every temptation.”

MenShouldMadeEnoughYoungCoursesFatherHouseVirtueDangerConversationTemptationSecureYoung ManResolutionYieldShelterPrecipiceTutorSteadiness
Book:Locke, Berkely and Hume
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“Reason, if consulted with, would advise, that their children's time should be spent in acquiring what might be useful to them when they come to be men, rather than to have their heads stuff'd with a deal of trash, a great part whereof they usually never do ('tis certain they never need to) think on again as long as they live: and so much of it as does stick by them they are only the worse for.”

IfsThinkingMenNeedsShouldChildrenLongDoeReasonMightCertainStuffDealsSticksTrashAdviseBe A Man
Book:Locke, Berkely and Hume
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“That which parents should take care of... is to distinguish between the wants of fancy, and those of nature.”

WantShouldCareParentTake CareFancy
Book:The Works of John Locke: Some thoughts concerning education. An examination of P. Malebranche's opinion of seeing all things in God. A discourse of miracles. Memoirs relating to the life of Anthony, first earl of Shaftesbury. Some familiar letters between Mr. Locke and several of his friends
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“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.”

IfsWorldInspirationalShouldIdeasLanguageTakenShould HavePhilosophicalFewerDisputesEnglish Language
Book:An Essay Concerning Human Understanding: An analysis of Mr. Locke's Doctrine of ideas .... A defense of Mr. Locke's Opinion concerning personal identity .... A treatise on the conduct of the understanding. Some thoughts concerning reading and study for a gentleman. Elements of natural philosophy. A new method of a common place book. Extracted from the author's works. With a life of the author
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“For where is the man that has incontestable evidence of the truth of all that he holds, or of the falsehood of all he condemns; or can say that he has examined to the bottom all his own, or other men's opinions? 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.”

MenShouldBelieveStatesActionOpinionEvidenceBottomBusyCarefulFalsehoodBlindnessFleetingConstrain
Book:An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
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