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General Observations Drawn From Particulars Are The Jewels Of Knowledge, Comprehending Great Store In A Little Room; But They Are Therefore To Be Made With The Greater Care And Caution, Lest, If We Take Counterfeit For True, Our Loss And Shame Be The Greater When Our Stock Comes To A Severe Scrutiny.

-John Locke

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General Observations Drawn From

John Locke

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General Observations Drawn From Particulars Are The Jewels Of Knowledge, Comprehending Great Store In A Little Room; But They Are Therefore To Be Made With The Greater Care And Caution, Lest, If We Take Counterfeit For True, Our Loss And Shame Be The Greater When Our Stock Comes To A Severe Scrutiny.

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The Commonwealth Of Learning Is Not At This Time Without Master-builders, Whose Mighty Designs, In Advancing The Sciences, Will Leave Lasting Monuments To The Admiration Of Posterity; But Every One Must Not Hope To Be A Boyle, Or A Sydenham; And In An Age That Produces Such Masters, As The Great-huygenius, And The Incomparable Mr. Newton, With Some Other Of That Strain; 'tis Ambition Enough To Be Employed As An Under-labourer In Clearing Ground A Little, And Removing Some Of The Rubbish, That Lies In The Way To Knowledge.

I Have Spent More Than Half A Lifetime Trying To Express The Tragic Moment.

Truth Certainly Would Do Well Enough, If She Were Once Left To Shift For Herself...she Is Not Taught By Laws, Nor Has She Any Need Of Force, To Procure Her Entrance Into The Minds Of Men.

What If Everything That Happened Here, Happened For A Reason?

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.

Justice And Truth Are The Common Ties Of Society

The Mind Is Furnished With Ideas By Experience Alone

It Is Ambition Enough To Be Employed As An Under-labourer In Clearing The Ground A Little, And Removing Some Of The Rubbish That Lies In The Way To Knowledge.

So Difficult It Is To Show The Various Meanings And Imperfections Of Words When We Have Nothing Else But Words To Do It With.

Where All Is But Dream, Reasoning And Arguments Are Of No Use, Truth And Knowledge Nothing.

This Is My Destiny — I'm Supposed To Do This, Dammit! Don't Tell Me What I Can And Can't Do!

He That Judges Without Informing Himself To The Utmost That He Is Capable, Cannot Acquit Himself Of Judging Amiss

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.

Affectation Is An Awkward And Forced Imitation Of What Should Be Genuine And Easy, Wanting The Beauty That Accompanies What Is Natural.

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.

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.

Things Of This World Are In So Constant A Flux, That Nothing Remains Long In The Same State.

A Sound Mind In A Sound Body Is A Short But Full Description Of A Happy State In This World.

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.

It Is Reported Of That Prodigy Of Parts, Monsieur Pascal, That Till The Decay Of His Health Had Impaired His Memory, He Forgot Nothing Of What He Had Done, Read, Or Thought, In Any Part Of His Rational Age. This Is A Privilege So Little Known To Most Men, That It Seems Almost Incredible To Those Who, After The Ordinary Way, Measure All Others By Themselves; But Yet, When Considered, May Help Us To Enlarge Our Thoughts Towards Greater Perfections Of It, In Superior Ranks Of Spirits.

From Whence It Is Obvious To Conclude That, Since Our Faculties Are Not Fitted To Penetrate Into The Internal Fabrick And Real Essences Of Bodies; But Yet Plainly Discover To Us The Being Of A God, And The Knowledge Of Our Selves, Enough To Lead Us Into A Full And Clear Discovery Of Our Duty, And Great Concernment, It Will Become Us, As Rational Creatures, To Imploy Those Faculties We Have About What They Are Most Adapted To, And Follow The Direction Of Nature, Where It Seems To Point Us Out The Way.

Merit And Good Works Is The End Of Man's Motion; And Conscience Of The Same Is The Accomplishment Of Man's Rest; For If A Man Can Be Partaker Of God's Theatre, He Shall Likewise Be Partaker Of God's Rest.

Liberty Is To Be Free From Restraint And Violence From Others

Whoever Has Used What Means He Is Capable Of, For The Informing Of Himself, With A Readiness To Believe And Obey What Shall Be Taught And Prescribed By Jesus, His Lord And King, Is A True And Faithful Subject Of Christ S Kingdom:;; And Cannot Be Thought To Fail In Any Thing Necessary To Salvation.

Probability Is A Kind Of Penance, Which God Made, Suitable, I Presume To That State Of Mediocrity And Probationership He Has Been Pleased To Place Us In Here; Wherein, To Check Our Over-confidence And Presumption, We Might, By Every Day's Experience, Be Made Sensible Of Our Short-sightedness, And Liableness To Error.

To Ask At What Time A Man Has First Any Ideas Is To Ask When He Begins To Perceive; Having Ideas And Perception Being The Same Thing.

Men Being, As Has Been Said, By Nature, All Free, Equal, And Independent, No One Can Be Put Out Of This Estate, And Subjected To The Political Power Of Another, Without His Own Consent.

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.

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.

The Acts Of The Mind, Wherein It Exerts Its Power Over Simple Ideas, Are Chiefly These Three: 1. Combining Several Simple Ideas Into One Compound One, And Thus All Complex Ideas Are Made. 2. The Second Is Bringing Two Ideas, Whether Simple Or Complex, Together, And Setting Them By One Another So As To Take A View Of Them At Once, Without Uniting Them Into One, By Which It Gets All Its Ideas Of Relations. 3. The Third Is Separating Them From All Other Ideas That Accompany Them In Their Real Existence: This Is Called Abstraction, And Thus All Its General Ideas Are Made.

Struggle Is Nature's Way Of Strengthening It

When The Sacredness Of Property Is Talked Of, It Should Be Remembered That Any Such Sacredness Does Not Belong In The Same Degree To Landed Property.

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.

It Is One Thing To Show A Man That He Is In An Error, And Another To Put Him In Possession Of The Truth.

Certainly Great Persons Had Need To Borrow Other Men's Opinions To Think Themselves Happy; For If They Judge By Their Own Feeling, They Cannot Find It: But If They Think With Themselves What Other Men Think Of Them, And That Other Men Would Fain Be As They Are, Then They Are Happy As It Were By Report, When, Perhaps, They Find The Contrary Within.

Fortitude Is The Guard And Support Of The Other Virtues.

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.

To Be Rational Is So Glorious A Thing, That Two-legged Creatures Generally Content Themselves With The Title.

New Opinions Are Always Suspected, And Usually Opposed, Without Any Other Reason But Because They Are Not Already Common.

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.

In My Opinion, Understanding Who Your Target Audience Is, And What They Want, And Writing To Them (and Only Them!) Is The Most Important Component Of Being Successful As An Author.

It Is Hard To Know What Other Way Men Can Come To Truth, To Lay Hold Of It, If They Do Not Dig And Search For It As For Gold And Hid Treasure; But He That Does So, Must Have Much Earth And Rubbish, Before He Gets The Pure Metal; Sand, And Pebbles, And Dross Usually Lie Blended With It, But The Gold Is Nevertheless Gold, And Will Enrich The Man That Employs His Pains To Seek And Separate It.

Every Man Has A Property In His Own Person. This Nobody Has A Right To, But Himself.

Beating Is The Worst, And Therefore The Last Means To Be Us'd In The Correction Of Children, And That Only In The Cases Of Extremity, After All Gently Ways Have Been Try'd, And Proved Unsuccessful; Which, If Well Observ'd, There Will Very Seldom Be Any Need Of Blows.

Logic Is The Anatomy Of Thought.

Anger Is Uneasiness Or Discomposure Of The Mind Upon The Receipt Of Any Injury, With A Present Purpose Of Revenge

Consciousness Is The Perception Of What Passes In Man's Own Mind.

[h]e That Thinks Absolute Power Purifies Men's Blood, And Corrects The Baseness Of Human Nature, Need Read The History Of This, Or Any Other Age, To Be Convinced To The Contrary.

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.

For Those Who Either Perceive But Dully, Or Retain The Ideas That Come Into Their Minds But Ill, Who Cannot Readily Excite Or Compound Them, Will Have Little Matter To Think On.

But There Is Only One Thing Which Gathers People Into Seditious Commotion, And That Is Oppression

And Because It May Be Too Great A Temptation To Human Frailty, Apt To Grasp At Power, For The Same Persons, Who Have The Power Of Making Laws, To Have Also In Their Hands The Power To Execute Them, Whereby They May Exempt Themselves From Obedience To The Laws They Make, And Suit The Law, Both In Its Making, And Execution, To Their Own Private Advantage.

Laws Provide, As Much As Ispossible That The Goods And Health Of Subjects Be Not Injured By The Fraud And Violence Of Others. They Do Not Guard Them From Thenegligence Or Ill-husbandry Of The Possessors Themselves.

I Do Not Say This, That I Think There Should Be No Difference Of Opinions In Conversation, Nor Opposition In Men's Discourses... 'tis Not The Owning One's Dissent From Another, That I Speak Against, But The Manner Of Doing It.

Men In Great Fortunes Are Strangers To Themselves, And While They Are In The Puzzle Of Business, They Have No Time To Tend Their Health Either Of Body Or Mind.

We Are Born With Faculties And Powers Capable Almost Of Anything, Such At Least As Would Carry Us Farther Than Can Easily Be Imagined: But It Is Only The Exercise Of Those Powers, Which Gives Us Ability And Skill In Any Thing, And Leads Us Towards Perfection.

The First Step To Get This Noble And Manly Steadiness, Is... Carefully Keep Children From Frights Of All Kinds, When They Are Young. ...instances Of Such Who In A Weak Timorous Mind, Have Borne, All Their Whole Lives Through, The Effects Of A Fright When They Were Young, Are Every Where To Be Seen, And Therefore As Much As May Be To Be Prevented.

This Is That Which I Think Great Readers Are Apt To Be Mistaken In; Those Who Have Read Of Everything, Are Thought To Understand Everything Too; But It Is Not Always So. Reading Furnishes The Mind Only With Materials Of Knowledge; It Is Thinking That Makes What We Read Ours. We Are Of The Ruminating Kind , And It Is Not Enough To Cram Ourselves With A Great Load Of Collections:;; Unless We Chew Them Over Again, They Will Not Give Us Strength And Nourishment.

Success In Fighting Means Not Coming At Your Opponent The Way He Wants To Fight You.

There Cannot Any One Moral Rule Be Proposed Whereof A Man May Not Justly Demand A Reason.

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.

If We Trace The Progress Of Our Minds, And With Attention Observe How It Repeats, Adds Together, And Unites Its Simple Ideas Received From Sensation Or Reflection, It Will Lead Us Farther Than At First, Perhaps, We Should Have Imagined.

It Is Labour Indeed That Puts The Difference On Everything.

Children Should From The Beginning Be Bred Up In An Abhorrence Of Killing Or Tormenting Any Living Creature; And Be Taught Not To Spoil Or Destroy Any Thing, Unless It Be For The Preservation Or Advantage Of Some Other That Is Nobler.

Though The Familiar Use Of Things About Us Take Off Our Wonder, Yet It Cures Not Our Ignorance.

An Excellent Man, Like Precious Metal, Is In Every Way Invariable; A Villain, Like The Beams Of A Balance, Is Always Varying, Upwards And Downwards.

Virtue Is Everywhere That Which Is Thought Praiseworthy; And Nothing Else But That Which Has The Allowance Of Public Esteem Is Called Virtue.

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.

Books Seem To Me To Be Pestilent Things, And Infect All That Trade In Them...with Something Very Perverse And Brutal. Printers, Binders, Sellers, And Others That Make A Trade And Gain Out Of Them Have Universally So Odd A Turn And Corruption Of Mind That They Have A Way Of Dealing Peculiar To Themselves, And Not Conformed To The Good Of Society And That General Fairness Which Cements Mankind.

What Humanity Abhors, Custom Reconciles And Recommends To Us.

The Great Art To Learn Much Is To Undertake A Little At A Time.

What Worries You, Masters You.

Many A Good Poetic Vein Is Buried Under A Trade, And Never Produces Any Thing For Want Of Improvement.

There Cannot Be Greater Rudeness Than To Interrupt Another In The Current Of His Discourse.

He That In The Ordinary Affairs Of Life Would Admit Of Nothing But Direct Plain Demonstration Would Be Sure Of Nothing In This World But Of Perishing Quickly.

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.

Error Is None The Better For Being Common, Nor Truth The Worse For Having Lain Neglected.

I Have Always Thought The Actions Of Men The Best Interpreters Of Their Thoughts.

So That, In Effect, Religion, Which Should Most Distinguish Us From Beasts, And Ought Most Peculiarly To Elevate Us, As Rational Creatures, Above Brutes, Is That Wherein Men Often Appear Most Irrational, And More Senseless Than Beasts Themselves.

Curiosity In Children ... Is But An Appetite After Knowledge And Therefore Ought To Be Encouraged In Them, Not Only As A Good Sign, But As The Great Instrument Nature Has Provided To Remove That Ignorance They Were Born With And Which, Without This Busy Inquisitiveness, Will Make Them Dull And Useless Creatures.

The Most Precious Of All Possessions Is Power Over Ourselves.

Self Discipline

Reading Furnishes The Mind Only With Materials Of Knowledge; It Is Thinking That Makes What We Read Ours.

It Is Practice Alone That Brings The Powers Of The Mind, As Well As Those Of The Body, To Their Perfection.

In The Beginning, All The World Was America.

That Which Is Static And Repetitive Is Boring. That Which Is Dynamic And Random Is Confusing. In Between Lies Art.

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.

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.

..every Man Has A Property In His Own Person. This No Body Has Any Right To But Himself. The Labour Of His Body, And The Work Of His Hands, We May Say, Are Properly His. .... The Great And Chief End Therefore, Of Mens Uniting Into Commonwealths, And Putting Themselves Under Government, Is The Preservation Of Their Property.

When Ideas Float In Our Mind, Without Any Reflection Or Regard Of The Understanding, It Is That Which The French Call Reverie.

The Indians , Whom We Call Barbarous, Observe Much More Decency And Civility In Their Discourses And Conversation, Giving One Another A Fair Silent Hearing Till They Have Quite Done; And Then Answering Them Calmly, And Without Noise Or Passion. And If It Be Not So In This Civiliz'd Part Of The World, We Must Impute It To A Neglect In Education, Which Has Not Yet Reform'd This Antient Piece Of Barbarity Amongst Us.

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.

Set The Mind To Work, And Apply The Thoughts Vigorously To The Business, For It Holds In The Struggles Of The Mind, As In Those Of War, That To Think We Shall Conquer Is To Conquer.

Practice Conquers The Habit Of Doing, Without Reflecting On The Rule.

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?

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 Ideas Of Primary Qualities Of Bodies, Are Resemblances Of Them, And Their Patterns Do Really Exist In The Bodies Themselves; But The Ideas, Produced In Us By These Secondary Qualities, Have No Resemblance Of Them At All. There Is Nothing Like Our Ideas, Existing In The Bodies Themselves. They Are In Bodies, We Denominate From Them, Only A Power To Produce Those Sensations In Us: And What Is Sweet, Blue Or Warm In Idea, Is But The Certain Bulk, Figure, And Motion Of The Insensible Parts In The Bodies Themselves, Which We Call So.

The Care Of Souls Cannot Belong To The Civil Magistrate.

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.

Reason, If Consulted With, Would Advise, That Their Children's Time Should Be Spent In Acquiring What Might Be Useful To Them When They Come To Be Men, Rather Than To Have Their Heads Stuff'd With A Deal Of Trash, A Great Part Whereof They Usually Never Do ('tis Certain They Never Need To) Think On Again As Long As They Live: And So Much Of It As Does Stick By Them They Are Only The Worse For.

Firmness Or Stiffness Of The Mind Is Not From Adherence To Truth, But Submission To Prejudice.

Thus Parents, By Humouring And Cockering Them When Little, Corrupt The Principles Of Nature In Their Children, And Wonder Afterwards To Taste The Bitter Waters, When They Themselves Have Poison'd The Fountain.

Men's Happiness Or Misery Is [for The] Most Part Of Their Own Making.

Whoso Sheddeth Man's Blood, By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed.

I Pretend Not To Teach, But To Inquire.

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 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.

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.

Revolt Is The Right Of The People

Let Not Men Think There Is No Truth, But In The Sciences That They Study, Or The Books That They Read.

I Thought That I Had No Time For Faith Nor Time To Pray, Then I Saw An Armless Man Saying His Rosary With His Feet.

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.

There Is Frequently More To Be Learned From The Unexpected Questions Of A Child Than The Discourses Of Men.

In All Things, Therefore, Where We Have Clear Evidence From Our Ideas, And Those Principles Of Knowledge I Have Above Mentioned, Reason Is The Proper Judge; And Revelation, Though It May, In Consenting With It, Confirm Its Dictates, Yet Cannot In Such Cases Invalidate Its Decrees: Nor Can We Be Obliged, Where We Have The Clear And Evident Sentience Of Reason, To Quit It For The Contrary Opinion, Under A Pretence That It Is Matter Of Faith: Which Can Have No Authority Against The Plain And Clear Dictates Of Reason.

Not Time Is The Measure Of Movement But: ...each Constant Periodic Appearance Of Ideas.

Time Management

The Church Which Taught Men Not To Keep Faith With Heretics, Had No Claim To Toleration.

How Much Education May Reconcile Young People To Pain And Sufference, The Examples Of Sparta Do Sufficiently Shew; And They Who Have Once Brought Themselves Not To Think Bodily Pain The Greatest Of Evils, Or That Which They Ought To Stand Most In Fear Of, Have Made No Small Advance Toward Virtue.

This Is To Think, That Men Are So Foolish, That They Take Care To Avoid What Mischiefs May Be Done Them By Pole-cats, Or Foxes; But Are Content, Nay, Think It Safety, To Be Devoured By Lions.

Untruth Being Unacceptable To The Mind Of Man, There Is No Other Defence Left For Absurdity But Obscurity.

Children (nay, And Men Too) Do Most By Example.

Good And Evil, Reward And Punishment, Are The Only Motives To A Rational Creature

With Books We Stand On The Shoulders Of Giants.

All Mankind... Being All Equal And Independent, No One Ought To Harm Another In His Life, Health, Liberty Or Possessions.

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.

Truth, Like Gold, Is Not Less So For Being Newly Brought Out Of The Mine.

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 Next Thing Is By Gentle Degrees To Accustom Children To Those Things They Are Too Much Afraid Of. But Here Great Caution Is To Be Used, That You Do Not Make Too Much Haste, Nor Attempt This Cure Too Early, For Fear Lest You Increase The Mischief Instead Of Remedying It.

Where Danger Shews It Self, Apprehension Cannot, Without Stupidity, Be Wanting; Where Danger Is, Sense Of Danger Should Be; And So Much Fear As Should Keep Us Awake, And Excite Our Attention, Industry, And Vigour; But Not To Disturb The Calm Use Of Our Reason, Nor Hinder The Execution Of What That Dictates.

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.

The Mind Being, As I Have Declared, Furnished With A Great Number Of The Simple Ideas Conveyed In By The Senses, As They Are Found In Exterior Things, Or By Reflection On Its Own Operations, Take Notice, Also, That A Certain Number Of These Simple Ideas Go Constantly Together... Which, By Inadvertency, We Apt Afterward To Talk Of And Condier As One Simple Idea.

Moral Laws Are Set As A Curb And Restraint To These Exorbitant Desires, Which They Cannot Be But By Rewards And Punishments, That Will Over-balance The Satisfaction Any One Shall Propose To Himself In The Breach Of The Law.

Where There Is No Desire, There Will Be No Industry.

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.

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.

Where There Is No Law There Is No Freedom.

To Give A Man Full Knowledge Of Morality, I Would Send Him To No Other Book Than The New Testament.

And Thus The Community Perpetually Retains A Supreme Power Of Saving Themselves From The Attempts And Designs Of Anybody, Even Of Their Legislators, Whenever They Shall Be So Foolish, Or So Wicked, As To Lay And Carry On Designs Against The Liberties And Properties Of The Subject.

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.

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. This Political Judgment, Moreover, Is Not Simply Or Primarily A Right, But Like Self-preservation, A Duty To God. As Such It Is A Judgment That Men Cannot Part With According To The God Of Nature. It Is The First And Foremost Of Our Inalienable Rights Without Which We Can Preserve No Other.

As People Are Walking All The Time, In The Same Spot, A Path Appears.

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.

The People Cannot Delegate To Government The Power To Do Anything Which Would Be Unlawful For Them To Do Themselves.

Libertarian Party

The Dread Of Evil Is A Much More Forcible Principle Of Human Actions Than The Prospect Of Good.

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.

Thirdly, The Supreme Power Cannot Take From Any Man Any Part Of His Property Without His Own Consent: For The Preservation Of Property Being The End Of Government, And That For Which Men Enter Into Society, It Necessarily Supposes And Requires, That The People Should Have Property, Without Which They Must Be Supposed To Lose That, By Entering Into Society, Which Was The End For Which They Entered Into It; Too Gross An Absurdity For Any Man To Own.

The Reason Why Men Enter Into Society Is The Preservation Of Their Property.

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.

God Is The Place Of Spirits, As Spaces Are The Places Of Bodies.

Wherever Law Ends, Tyranny Begins.

The Only Fence Against The World Is A Thorough Knowledge Of It, Into Which A Young Gentleman Should Be Enter'd By Degrees, As He Can Bear It; And The Earlier The Better, So He Be In Safe And Skillful Hands To Guide Him.

Thorough Knowledge

When We Know Our Own Strength, We Shall The Better Know What To Undertake With Hopes Of Success.

Inspirational Success

Hope Of Success

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.

False And Doubtful Positions, Relied Upon As Unquestionable Maxims, Keep Those Who Build On Them In The Dark From Truth. Such Are Usually The Prejudices Imbibed From Education, Party, Reverence, Fashion, Interest, Et Cetera.

He That Will Make Good Use Of Any Part Of His Life Must Allow A Large Part Of It To Recreation.

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.

That Which Parents Should Take Care Of... Is To Distinguish Between The Wants Of Fancy, And Those Of Nature.

How Long Have You Been Holding Those Words In Your Head, Hoping To Use Them?

Curiosity Should Be As Carefully Cherish'd In Children, As Other Appetites Suppress'd.

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.

If, Then, There Must Be Something Eternal, Let Us See What Sort Of Being It Must Be. And To That It Is Very Obvious To Reason, That It Must Necessarily Be A Cogitative Being. For It Is As Impossible To Conceive That Ever Bare Incogitative Matter Should Produce A Thinking Intelligent Being, As That Nothing Should Of Itself Produce Matter.

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.

Who Are We To Tell Anyone What They Can Or Can't Do?

The Chief Art Of Learning Is To Attempt But A Little At A Time.

Crooked Things May Be As Stiff And Unflexible As Streight: And Men May Be As Positive And Peremptory In Error As In Truth.

Understanding Like The Eye; Whilst It Makes Us See And Perceive All Things, Takes No Notice Of Itself; And It Requires Art And Pains To Set It At A Distance And Make It Its Own Subject.

Who Hath A Prospect Of The Different State Of Perfect Happiness Or Misery That Attends All Men After This Life, Depending On Their Behavior, The Measures Of Good And Evil That Govern His Choice Are Mightily Changed.

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.

In Transgressing The Law Of Nature, The Offender Declares Himself To Live By Another Rule Than That Of Reason And Common Equity.

For Where Is The Man That Has Incontestable Evidence Of The Truth Of All That He Holds, Or Of The Falsehood Of All He Condemns; Or Can Say That He Has Examined To The Bottom All His Own, Or Other Men's Opinions? 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.

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.

The Picture Of A Shadow Is A Positive Thing.

Positive Things

A Young Man Before He Leaves The Shelter Of His Father's House, And The Guard Of A Tutor, Should Be Fortify'd With Resolution, And Made Acquainted With Men, To Secure His Virtues, Lest He Should Be Led Into Some Ruinous Course, Or Fatal Precipice, Before He Is Sufficiently Acquainted With The Dangers Of Conversation, And His Steadiness Enough Not To Yield To Every Temptation.

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.

There Is Not So Contemptible A Plant Or Animal That Does Not Confound The Most Enlarged Understanding.

He Would Be Laughed At, That Should Go About To Make A Fine Dancer Out Of A Country Hedger, At Past Fifty. And He Will Not Have Much Better Success, Who Shall Endeavour, At That Age, To Make A Man Reason Well, Or Speak Handsomely, Who Has Never Been Used To It, Though You Should Lay Before Him A Collection Of All The Best Precepts Of Logic Or Oratory.

Let The Awe [the Teacher] Has Upon [children's] Minds Be So Tempered With The Constant Marks Of Tenderness And Good Will, That Affection May Spur Them To Their Duty, And Make Them Find A Pleasure In Complying With His Dictates. This Will Bring Them With Satisfaction To Their Tutor; Make Them Hearken To Him, As To One Who Is Their Friend, That Cherishes Them, And Takes Pains For Their Good; This Will Keep Their Thoughts Easy And Free, Whilst They Are With Him, The Only Temper Wherein The Mind Is Capable Of Receiving New Information, And Of Admitting Into Itself Those Impressions.

Children Generally Hate To Be Idle; All The Care Then Is That Their Busy Humour Should Be Constantly Employed In Something Of Use To Them

When I Had Gone Through The Whole, And Saw What A Plain, Simple, Reasonable Thing Christianity Was, Suited To All Conditions And Capacities; And In The Morality Of It Now, With Divine Authority, Established Into A Legible Law, So Far Surpassing All That Philosophy And Human Reason Had Attained To, Or Could Possibly Make Effectual To All Degrees Of Man Kind; I Was Flattered To Think It Might Be Of Some Use In The World.

There Are A Thousand Ways To Wealth, But Only One Way To Heaven.

There Is No Such Way To Gain Admittance, Or Give Defence To Strange And Absurd Doctrines, As To Guard Them Round About With Legions Of Obscure, Doubtful, And Undefin'd Words.

I Am Sure, Zeal Or Love For Truth Can Never Permit Falsehood To Be Used In The Defense Of It.

Faith Is The Assent To Any Proposition Not Made Out By The Deduction Of Reason But Upon The Credit Of The Proposer.

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.

I Doubt Not, But From Self-evident Propositions, By Necessary Consequences, As Incontestable As Those In Mathematics, The Measures Of Right And Wrong Might Be Made Out.

If You Punish Him For What He Sees You Practise Yourself, He... Will Be Apt To Interpret It The Peevishness And Arbitrary Imperiousness Of A Father, Who, Without Any Ground For It, Would Deny His Son The Liberty And Pleasure He Takes Himself.

If We Will Disbelieve Everything, Because We Cannot Certainly Know All Things, We Shall Do Much What As Wisely As He Who Would Not Use His Legs, But Sit Still And Perish, Because He Had No Wings To Fly.

The Greatest Part Of Mankind ... Are Given Up To Labor, And Enslaved To The Necessity Of Their Mean Condition; Whose Lives Are Worn Out Only In The Provisions For Living.

Whosoever Will List Himself Under The Banner Of Christ, Must, In The First Place And Above All Things, Make War Upon His Own Lusts And Vices. It Is In Vain For Any Man To Usurp The Name Of Christian, Without Holiness Of Life, Purity Of Manners, Benignity And Meekness Of Spirit.

It Is One Thing To Persuade, Another To Command; One Thing To Press With Arguments, Another With Penalties.

Beware How In Making The Portraiture Thou Breakest The Pattern: For Divinity Maketh The Love Of Ourselves The Pattern; The Love Of Our Neighbours But The Portraiture.

Truth Then Seems To Me, In The Proper Import Of The Word, To Signify Nothing But The Joining Or Separating Of Signs, As The Things Signified By Them Do Agree Or Disagree One With Another. The Joining Or Separating Of Signs Here Meant, Is What By Another Name We Call proposition. So That Truth Properly Belongs Only To Propositions: Whereof There Are Two Sorts, Viz. Mental And Verbal; As There Are Two Sorts Of Signs Commonly Made Use Of, Viz. Ideas And Words.

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.

Second Amendment

The State Of Nature Has A Law Of Nature To Govern It, Which Obliges Every One: And Reason, Which Is That Law, Teaches All Mankind, Who Will But Consult It.

Tis A Mistake To Think This Fault [tyranny] Is Proper Only To Monarchies; Other Forms Of Government Are Liable To It, As Well As That. For Where-ever The Power That Is Put In Any Hands For The Government Of The People, And The Preservation Of Their Properties, Is Applied To Other Ends, And Made Use Of To Impoverish, Harass, Or Subdue Them To The Arbitrary And Irregular Commands Of Those That Have It: There It Presently Becomes Tyranny, Whether Those That Thus Use It Are One Or Many.

All Wealth Is The Product Of Labor.

Certain Subjects Yield A General Power That May Be Applied In Any Direction And Should Be Studied By All.

He That Uses His Words Loosely And Unsteadily Will Either Not Be Minded Or Not Understood.

The Least And Most Imperceptible Impressions Received In Our Infancy Have Consequences Very Important And Of Long Duration.

Our Business Here Is Not To Know All Things, But Those Which Concern Our Conduct.

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.

Fashion For The Most Part Is Nothing But The Ostentation Of Riches.

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William Throsby Bridges

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