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John Locke Quotes

All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, li...

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God when he makes the prophet does not unmake the man.

It is a man's proper business to seek happiness and avoid misery.

The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the st...

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We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are the s...

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The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.

What worries you, masters you.

It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of the tr...

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Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge it is thinking that makes what we read o...

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Government has no other end, but the preservation of property.

All men are liable to error and most men are ... by passion or interest under temptation to it.

Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause u...

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New opinions are always suspected and usually opposed without any other reason but because they ar...

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Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge it is thinking that makes what we read o...

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Reverie is when ideas float in our mind without reflection or regard of the understanding.

As people are walking all the time, in the same spot, a path appears.

A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world.

We should have a great fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs ...

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So that, in effect, religion, which should most distinguish us from beasts, and ought most peculiarl...

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The thoughts that come often unsought and as it were drop into the mind are commonly the most va...

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Fear is an uneasiness of the mind upon the thought of a future evil likely to befall us.

All wealth is the product of labor.

Where all is but dream, reasoning and arguments are of no use, truth and knowledge nothing.

Things of this world are in so constant a flux, that nothing remains long in the same state.

We are like chameleons, we take our hue and the color of our moral character, from those who are aro...

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Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.

...the end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom: for in all the...

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The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property.

All wealth is the product of labor

To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed...

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The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to...

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Virtue is harder to be got than knowledge of the world; and, if lost in a young man, is seldom recov...

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When we find out an Idea, by whose Intervention we discover the Connexion of two others, this is a R...

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The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men. It has God for it...

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No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience.

I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.

To give a man full knowledge of true morality I would send him to no other book than the New Testam...

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To love our neighbor as ourselves is such a truth for regulating human society, that by that alone o...

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It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all...

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Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him.

But now, if I be marching on with my utmost vigour in that way which, according to the sacred geogra...

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A Letter Concerning Toleration: Humbly Submitted

[M]an is not permitted without censure to follow his own thoughts in the search of truth, when they ...

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Liberty is not an Idea belonging to Volition, or preferring; but to the Person having the Power of d...

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An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

For where is the man that has incontestable evidence of the truth of all that he holds, or of the fa...

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An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

One unerring mark of the love of truth is not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance th...

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An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

It is therefore worthwhile, to search out the bounds between opinion and knowledge; and examine by w...

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An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

This is that which I think great readers are apt to be mistaken in. Those who have read of every thi...

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Locke's Conduct of the Understanding

Being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or posse...

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Second Treatise of Government

As usurpation is the exercise of power, which another hath a right to; so tyranny is the exercise of...

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Second Treatise of Government

Sec. 10. Besides the crime which consists in violating the law, and varying from the right rule of r...

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Second Treatise of Government

No man in civil society can be exempted from the laws of it: for if any man may do what he thinks fi...

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Second Treatise of Government

Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal and independent, no one can be put out of th...

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Second Treatise of Government

...but since He gave it them for their benefit and the greatest conveniences of life they were capab...

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Second Treatise of Government

The only defense against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.

Some Thoughts Concerning Education

The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom.

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Picture of John Locke

John Locke

Philosopher

Born: 1632-08-29

Died: 1704-10-28

John Locke (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an influential English philosopher and social contract theorist. He developed an alternative to the Hobbesian state of nature and asserted a government could be good only if it received the consent of the governed and protected the natural rights of life, liberty, and estate. If such a consent was not achieved, Locke argued in favour of a right of rebellion, which he referred to as an "appeal to heaven".More