JOHN LOCKE QUOTES IV

English philosopher (1632-1704)

He that denies any of the doctrines that Christ has delivered, to be true, denies him to be sent from God, and consequently to be the Messiah; and so ceases to be a Christian.

JOHN LOCKE

The Reasonableness of Christianity

Tags: Jesus Christ


He that will have his son have a respect for him and his orders, must himself have a great reverence for his son.

JOHN LOCKE

Some Thoughts Concerning Education

Tags: respect


Hunting after arguments to make good one side of a question, and wholly to neglect and refuse those which favor the other side ... [is] willfully to misguide the understanding; and is so far from giving truth its due value, it wholly debases it.

JOHN LOCKE

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Tags: questions


If the Gospel and the Apostles may be credited, no man can be a Christian without charity, and without that faith which works, not by force, but by love.

JOHN LOCKE

Letters Concerning Toleration

Tags: charity


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

JOHN LOCKE

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Tags: thinking


All rising to great place is by a winding stair; and if there be factions, it is good to side a man's self whilst he is in the rising, and to balance himself when he is placed.

JOHN LOCKE

"Of Great Place", The Conduct of the Understanding: Essays, Moral, Economical, and Political


God is the place of spirits, as spaces are the places of bodies.

JOHN LOCKE

"An Examination of P. Malebranche's Opinion of Seeing All Things in God", Philosophical Works

Tags: God


When we know our own strength, we shall the better know what to undertake with hopes of success; and when we have well surveyed the powers of our own minds, and made some estimate what we may expect from them, we shall not be inclined either to sit still, and not set our thoughts on work at all, in despair of knowing anything; nor on the other side, question everything, and declaim all knowledge, because some things are not to be understood.

JOHN LOCKE

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Tags: strength


Children (nay, and men too) do most by example.

JOHN LOCKE

Some Thoughts Concerning Education


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.

JOHN LOCKE

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Tags: belief


When Fashion hath once Established, what Folly or craft began, Custom makes it Sacred, and 'twill be thought impudence or madness, to contradict or question it.

JOHN LOCKE

First Treatise of Government

Tags: custom


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.

JOHN LOCKE

Second Treatise of Civil Government

Tags: tyranny


Let not men think there is no truth, but in the sciences that they study, or the books that they read.

JOHN LOCKE

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding


Some men are remarked for pleasantness in raillery; others for apologues and apposite diverting stories. This is apt to be taken for the effect of pure nature, and that the rather, because it is not got by rules, and those who excel in either of them, never purposely set themselves to the study of it, as an art to be learnt. But yet it is true, that at first some lucky hit, which took with somebody, and gained him commendation, encouraged him to try again, inclined his thoughts and endeavours that way, till at last he insensibly got a facility in it, without perceiving how; and that is attributed wholly to nature, which was much more the effect of use and practice.

JOHN LOCKE

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding


Stubbornness and an obstinate disobedience must be mastered with blows.

JOHN LOCKE

attributed, John Locke: Prophet of Common Sense

Tags: stubbornness


A father would do well, as his son grows up, and is capable of it, to talk familiarly with him; nay, ask his advice, and consult with him about those things wherein he has any knowledge or understanding. By this, the father will gain two things, both of great moment. The sooner you treat him as a man, the sooner he will begin to be one; and if you admit him into serious discourses sometimes with you, you will insensibly raise his mind above the usual amusements of youth, and those trifling occupations which it is commonly wasted in.

JOHN LOCKE

Some Thoughts Concerning Education

Tags: fathers


It is practice alone that brings the powers of the mind, as well as those of the body, to their perfection.

JOHN LOCKE

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding


Neither the inveterateness of the mischief, nor the prevalency of the fashion, shall be any excuse for those who will not take care about the meaning of their own words, and will not suffer the insignificancy of their expressions to be inquired into.

JOHN LOCKE

epistle to the reader, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Tags: words


Power to do good is the true and lawful act of aspiring; for good thoughts (though God accept them), yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act; and that cannot be without power and place, as the vantage and commanding ground.

JOHN LOCKE

"Of Great Place", The Conduct of the Understanding: Essays, Moral, Economical, and Political

Tags: power


Religion, which should most distinguish us from the beasts, and ought most particularly elevate us, as rational creatures, above brutes, is that wherein men often appear most irrational, and more senseless than beasts.

JOHN LOCKE

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Tags: religion