John Locke Quotes

"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without anyother reason but because they are not already common."

"The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others."

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

"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"

"A sound mind in a sound body, is a short, but full description of a happy state in this World: he that has these two, has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them, will be little the better for anything else."

"To prejudge other men's notions before we have looked into them is not to show their darkness but to put out our own eye"

"Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature: these are the spur and reins whereby all mankind are set on work, and guided."

"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; a liberty to follow my own will in all things, when the rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to the inconstant, unknown, arbitrary will of another man."

"The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others"

"Practice conquers the habit of doing, without reflecting on the rule."

"I have spent more than half a lifetime trying to express the tragic moment."

"The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others"

"Nature never makes excellent things for mean or no uses."

"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."

"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 judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss"

"Man... hath by nature a power.... to preserve his property - that is, his life, liberty, and estate - against the injuries and attempts of other men."

"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."

"Liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others"