John Locke was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the “father of liberalism”
Quotes
Don’t tell me what I can’t do!
Struggle is nature’s way of strengthening it.
What worries you, masters you.
Logic is the anatomy of thought.
Where there is no law there is no freedom.
Curiosity in children is but an appetite for knowledge.
With books we stand on the shoulders of giants.
The discipline of desire is the background of character.
This is my destiny – I’m supposed to do this, dammit! Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do!
All wealth is the product of labor.
Who are we to tell anyone what they can or can’t do?
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.
The mind is furnished with ideas by experience alone.
No man’s knowledge here can go beyond his experience.
Revolt is the right of the people.
Justice and truth are the common ties of society.
Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him.
There are two sides, two players. One is light, the other is dark.
A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world.
Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature.
Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.
Government has no other end, but the preservation of property.
That which is static and repetitive is boring. That which is dynamic and random is confusing. In between lies art.
Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses.
I am sure, zeal or love for truth can never permit falsehood to be used in the defense of it.
How long have you been holding those words in your head, hoping to use them?
Mathematical proofs, like diamonds, are hard and clear, and will be touched with nothing but strict reasoning.
In the beginning, all the world was America.
Anger is uneasiness or discomposure of the mind upon the receipt of any injury, with a present purpose of revenge.
Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.
Being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.
The great art to learn much is to undertake a little at a time.
Don’t let the things you don’t have prevent you from using what you do have.
The most precious of all possessions is power over ourselves.
As people are walking all the time, in the same spot, a path appears.
The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.
Consciousness is the perception of what passes in man’s own mind.
There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.
We are like chameleons, we take our hue and the color of our moral character, from those who are around us.
Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.
It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.
Our Business here is not to know all things, but those which concern our conduct.
All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it.
It is labour indeed that puts the difference on everything.
Personal Identity depends on Consciousness not on Substance.
It is easier for a tutor to command than to teach.
Success in fighting means not coming at your opponent the way he wants to fight you.
Who lies for you will lie against you.
The picture of a shadow is a positive thing.
There are a thousand ways to Wealth, but only one way to Heaven.
Truth, like gold, is not less so for being newly brought out of the mine.
God, when he makes the prophet, does not unmake the man.
Reason must be our last judge and guide in everything.
But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression.
It is one thing to persuade, another to command; one thing to press with arguments, another with penalties.
He that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss.
What if everything that happened here, happened for a reason?
Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.
Try all things, hold fast that which is good.
There cannot be greater rudeness than to interrupt another in the current of his discourse.
When we know our own strength, we shall the better know what to undertake with hopes of success…
The greatest part cannot know, and therefore they must believe.
Is it worth the name of freedom to be at liberty to play the fool?
The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property.
I have spent more than half a lifetime trying to express the tragic moment.
The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom.
Every man must some time or other be trusted to himself.
God is the place of spirits, as spaces are the places of bodies.
Practice conquers the habit of doing, without reflecting on the rule.
Fashion for the most part is nothing but the ostentation of riches.
I pretend not to teach, but to inquire.