100+ Quotes by John Locke
John Locke, a prominent Enlightenment philosopher, made profound contributions to political theory and epistemology. His ideas have had a lasting impact on modern concepts of government, individual rights, and the nature of knowledge. Locke's "Two Treatises of Government" advocated for the idea of a social contract and the consent of the governed as the foundation for legitimate political authority. He believed that individuals have natural rights to life, liberty, and property, concepts that influenced the drafting of the United States Declaration of Independence. In his "Essay Concerning Human Understanding," Locke explored the nature of human knowledge, emphasizing the role of sensory experience in shaping our understanding of the world. His ideas laid the groundwork for empiricism and influenced subsequent philosophers, shaping the intellectual landscape of the Enlightenment and beyond.
John Locke Quotes
What worries you, masters you. (Meaning)
Who lies for you will lie against you. (Meaning)
Wherever Law ends, Tyranny begins. (Meaning)
Liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others (Meaning)
With books we stand on the shoulders of giants. (Meaning)
Where there is no law there is no freedom. (Meaning)
The discipline of desire is the background of character. (Meaning)
Revolt is the right of the people (Meaning)
Who are we to tell anyone what they can or can't do? (Meaning)
No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience. (Meaning)
Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses. (Meaning)
Don't tell me what I can't do! (Meaning)
Logic is the anatomy of thought. (Meaning)
Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues. (Meaning)
Try all things, hold fast that which is good. (Meaning)
Where there is no property there is no injustice. (Meaning)
The chief art of learning is to attempt but a little at a time. (Meaning)
The mind is furnished with ideas by experience alone (Meaning)
All wealth is the product of labor. (Meaning)
In the beginning, all the world was America. (Meaning)
What worries you, masters you.
All men by nature are equal in that equal right that every man hath to his natural freedom, without being subjected to the will or authority of any other man; being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.
Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip.
Who lies for you will lie against you.
The most precious of all possessions is power over ourselves.
Any single man must judge for himself whether circumstances warrant obedience or resistance to the commands of the civil magistrate; we are all qualified, entitled, and morally obliged to evaluate the conduct of our rulers.
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.
Wherever Law ends, Tyranny begins.
Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.
Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company, and reflection must finish him.
There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.
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.
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.
Curiosity in children, is but an appetite for knowledge. The great reason why children abandon themselves wholly to silly pursuits and trifle away their time insipidly is, because they find their curiosity balked, and their inquiries neglected.
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.
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.
Revolt is the right of the people
All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.
Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
Individuals have a right to defend themselves and recover by force what by unlawful force is taken from them.
Who are we to tell anyone what they can or can't do?
The improvement of the understanding is for two ends; first, for our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver and make out that knowledge to others.
All wealth is the product of labor.
Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.
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.
As people are walking all the time, in the same spot, a path appears.
Don't let the things you don't have prevent you from using what you do have.
Liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others
But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression
The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.
It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.
Where there is no law there is no freedom.
The discipline of desire is the background of character.
Don't tell me what I can't do!
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.
No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience.
Government has no other end, but the preservation of property.
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.
The power of the legislative being derived from the people by a positive voluntary grant and institution, can be no other than what that positive grant conveyed, which being only to make laws, and not to make legislators, the legislative can have no power to transfer their authority of making laws, and place it in other hands.
Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses.
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.
How long have you been holding those words in your head, hoping to use them?
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.
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.
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.
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.
It is one thing to persuade, another to command; one thing to press with arguments, another with penalties.
When we know our own strength, we shall the better know what to undertake with hopes of success.
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.
He that will have his son have respect for him and his orders, must himself have a great reverence for his son.
There cannot be greater rudeness than to interrupt another in the current of his discourse.
All the entertainment and talk of history is nothing almost but fighting and killing: and the honour and renown that is bestowed on conquerors (who for the most part are but the great butchers of mankind) farther mislead growing youth, who by this means come to think slaughter the laudable business of mankind, and the most heroic of virtues.
What if everything that happened here, happened for a reason?
The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which would be unlawful for them to do themselves.
There are two sides, two players. One is light, the other is dark.
With books we stand on the shoulders of giants.
The body of People may with Respect resist intolerable Tyranny.
Where there is no desire, there will be no industry.
That which is static and repetitive is boring. That which is dynamic and random is confusing. In between lies art.
Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.
Vague and mysterious forms of speech, and abuse of language, have so long passed for mysteries of science; and hard or misapplied words with little or no meaning have, by prescription, such a right to be mistaken for deep learning and height of speculation, that it will not be easy to persuade either those who speak or those who hear them, that they are but the covers of ignorance and hindrance of true knowledge.
The Church which taught men not to keep faith with heretics, had no claim to toleration.
Success in fighting means not coming at your opponent the way he wants to fight you.
He that will make good use of any part of his life must allow a large part of it to recreation.
If the innocent honest Man must quietly quit all he has for Peace sake, to him who will lay violent hands upon it, I desire it may be considered what kind of Peace there will be in the World, which consists only in Violence and Rapine; and which is to be maintained only for the benefit of Robbers and Oppressors.
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.
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.
Reason must be our last judge and guide in everything.
He that uses his words loosely and unsteadily will either not be minded or not understood.
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.
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.
Things of this world are in so constant a flux, that nothing remains long in the same state.
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.
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.
It is practice alone that brings the powers of the mind, as well as those of the body, to their perfection.
Logic is the anatomy of thought.
Firmness or stiffness of the mind is not from adherence to truth, but submission to prejudice.
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.
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.
It is easier for a tutor to command than to teach.
The least and most imperceptible impressions received in our infancy have consequences very important and of long duration.
It is labour indeed that puts the difference on everything.
Fashion for the most part is nothing but the ostentation of riches.
The dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than the prospect of good.
The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property.
Men in great place are thrice servants; servants of the sovereign state, servants of fame, and servants of business; so as they have no freedom, neither in their persons, nor in their actions, nor in their times. It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.
The visible mark of extraordinary wisdom and power appear so plainly in all the works of creation.
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.
Curiosity in children is but an appetite for knowledge.
If by gaining knowledge we destroy our health, we labour for a thing that will be useless in our hands.
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.
To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.
He that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss
A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world.
The great art to learn much is to undertake a little at a time.
Try all things, hold fast that which is good.
God, when he makes the prophet, does not unmake the man.
All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it.
In transgressing the law of nature, the offender declares himself to live by another rule than that of reason and common equity.
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.
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. The People alone can appoint the Form of the Commonwealth, which is by Constituting the Legislative, and appointing in whose hands that shall be.
In short, herein seems to lie the difference between idiots and madmen, that madmen put wrong ideas together, and so make wrong propositions, but argue and reason right from them: but idiots make very few or no propositions, and reason scarce at all.
There are a thousand ways to Wealth, but only one way to Heaven.
Where there is no property there is no injustice.
The greatest part cannot know, and therefore they must believe.
As usurpation is the exercise of power which another has a right to, so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which nobody can have a right to.
Error is none the better for being common, nor truth the worse for having lain neglected.
Our Business here is not to know all things, but those which concern our conduct.
To be rational is so glorious a thing, that two-legged creatures generally content themselves with the title.
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.
Untruth being unacceptable to the mind of man, there is no other defence left for absurdity but obscurity.
Where all is but dream, reasoning and arguments are of no use, truth and knowledge nothing.
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.
Knowledge is grateful to the understanding, as light to the eyes.
The chief art of learning is to attempt but a little at a time.
Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature
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.
Truth, like gold, is not less so for being newly brought out of the mine.
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.
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.
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
Not time is the measure of movement but: ...each constant periodic appearance of ideas.
Words, in their primary or immediate signification, stand for nothing but the ideas in the mind of him who uses them.
There cannot any one moral rule be proposed whereof a man may not justly demand a reason.
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.
Faith is the assent to any proposition not made out by the deduction of reason but upon the credit of the proposer.
We are all a sort of chameleons, that still take a tincture from things near us: nor is it to be wondered at in children, who better understand what they see, than what they hear.
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?
As the magistrate has no power to impose by his laws the use of any rites and ceremonies in any church, so neither has he any power to forbid the use of such rites and ceremonies as are already received, approved, and practised by any church; because if he did so, he would destroy the church itself; the end of whose institution is only to worship God with freedom, after its own manner.
Certain subjects yield a general power that may be applied in any direction and should be studied by all.
Consciousness is the perception of what passes in man's own mind.
Justice and truth are the common ties of society
Mathematical proofs, like diamonds, are hard and clear, and will be touched with nothing but strict reasoning.
The mind is furnished with ideas by experience alone
The thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were, drop into the mind, are commonly the most valuable of any we have.
Children (nay, and men too) do most by example.
Man 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.
If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.
Is it worth the name of freedom to be at liberty to play the fool?
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. . . .
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.
Practice conquers the habit of doing, without reflecting on the rule.
Action is the great business of mankind, and the whole matter about which all laws are conversant.
I pretend not to teach, but to inquire.
― John Locke Quotes
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Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
