Background Image

...

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.

-John Locke

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Let The Awe [the

John Locke

...

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.

Views: 4

Topic

More From John Locke

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

Every Man Must Some Time Or Other Be Trusted To Himself.

The Difference, So Observable In Men's Understandings And Parts, Does Not Arise So Much From Their Natural Faculties, As Acquired Habits.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

The Visible Mark Of Extraordinary Wisdom And Power Appear So Plainly In All The Works Of Creation.

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

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.

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.

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

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

He That Will Have His Son Have Respect For Him And His Orders, Must Himself Have A Great Reverence For His Son.

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.

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.

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.

The Mind Is Furnished With Ideas By Experience Alone

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

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.

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

The Works Of Nature And The Works Of Revelation Display Religion To Mankind In Characters So Large And Visible That Those Who Are Not Quite Blind May In Them See And Read The First Principles And Most Necessary Parts Of It And From Thence Penet Into Those Infinite Depths Filled With The Treasures Of Wisdom And Knowledge.

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

The Rising Unto Place Is Laborious, And By Pains Men Come To Greater Pains; And It Is Sometimes Base, And By Indignities Men Come To Dignities.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Curiosity In Children Is But An Appetite For Knowledge.

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

Time Management

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.

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

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

The Senses At First Let In Particular Ideas, And Furnish The Yet Empty Cabinet: And The Mind By Degrees Growing Familiar With Some Of Them, They Are Lodged In The Memory, And Names Got To Them.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

For A Man's Property Is Not At All Secure, Though There Be Good And Equitable Laws To Set The Bounds Of It, Between Him And His Fellow Subjects, If He Who Commands Those Subjects, Have Power To Take From Any Private Man, What Part He Pleases Of His Property, And Use And Dispose Of It As He Thinks Good.

The Native And Untaught Suggestions Of Inquisitive Children Do Often Offer Things, That May Set A Considering Man's Thoughts On Work. And I Think There Is Frequently More To Be Learn'd From The Unexpected Questions Of A Child Than The Discourses Of Men, Who Talk In A Road, According To The Notions They Have Borrowed, And The Prejudices Of Their Education.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Words, In Their Primary Or Immediate Signification, Stand For Nothing But The Ideas In The Mind Of Him Who Uses Them.

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.

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.

Knowledge Is Grateful To The Understanding, As Light To The Eyes.

The Most Precious Of All Possessions Is Power Over Ourselves.

Self Discipline

..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.

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.

Whosoever Is Found Variable, And Changeth Manifestly Without Manifest Cause, Giveth Suspicion Of Corruption: Therefore, Always, When Thou Changest Thine Opinion Or Course, Profess It Plainly, And Declare It, Together With The Reasons That Move Thee To Change.

It Is Easier For A Tutor To Command Than To Teach.

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 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.

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.

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

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

How Then Shall They Have The Play-games You Allow Them, If None Must Be Bought For Them?" I Answer, They Should Make Them Themselves, Or At Least Endeavour It, And Set Themselves About It. ...and If You Help Them Where They Are At A Stand, It Will More Endear You To Them Than Any Chargeable Toys That You Shall Buy For Them.

As Children's Inquiries Are Not To Be Slighted, So Also Great Care Is To Be Taken, That They Never Receive Deceitful And Illuding Answers. They Easily Perceive When They Are Slighted Or Deceived, And Quickly Learn The Trick Of Neglect, Dissimulation, And Falsehood, Which They Observe Others To Make Use Of. We Are Not To Intrench Upon Truth In Any Conversation, But Least Of All With Children; Since, If We Play False With Them, We Not Only Deceive Their Expectation, And Hinder Their Knowledge, But Corrupt Their Innocence, And Teach Them The Worst Of Vices.

Education Begins The Gentleman, But Reading, Good Company, And Reflection Must Finish Him.

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.

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.

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

It Is Vain To Find Fault With Those Arts Of Deceiving Wherein Men Find Pleasure To Be Deceived.

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.

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.

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.

The Only Fence Against The World Is A Thorough Knowledge Of It.

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

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.

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.

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.

In The Discharge Of Thy Place Set Before Thee The Best Examples; For Imitation Is A Globe Of Precepts.

The Thoughts That Come Often Unsought, And, As It Were, Drop Into The Mind, Are Commonly The Most Valuable Of Any We Have.

Since Nothing Appears To Me To Give Children So Much Becoming Confidence And Behavior, And So Raise Them To The Conversation Of Those Above Their Age, As Dancing. I Think They Should Be Taught To Dance As Soon As They Are Capable Of Learning It.

[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.

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.

We Should Have A Great Fewer Disputes In The World If Words Were Taken For What They Are, The Signs Of Our Ideas Only, And Not For Things Themselves.

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.

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

Where There Is No Law There Is No Freedom.

I Pretend Not To Teach, But To Inquire.

Earthly Minds, Like Mud Walls, Resist The Strongest Batteries; And Though, Perhaps, Sometimes The Force Of A Clear Argument May Make Some Impression, Yet They Nevertheless Stand Firm, Keep Out The Enemy, Truth, That Would Captivate Or Disturbe Them.

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

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.

He That Has His Chains Knocked Off, And The Prison Doors Set Open To Him, Is Perfectly At Liberty, Because He May Either Go Or Stay, As He Best Likes; Though His Preference Be Determined To Stay, By The Darkness Of The Night, Or Illness Of The Weather, Or Want Of Other Lodging.

Nobody Is Made Anything By Hearing Of Rules, Or Laying Them Up In His Memory; Practice Must Settle The Habit Of Doing, Without Reflecting On The Rule; And You May As Well Hope To Make A Good Painter, Or Musician, Extempore, By A Lecture And Instruction In The Arts Of Music And Painting, As A Coherent Thinker, Or A Strict Reasoner, By A Set Of Rules, Showing Him Wherein Right Reasoning Consists.

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.

Government Has No Other End, But The Preservation Of Property.

Who Lies For You Will Lie Against You.

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. . . .

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.

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.

Nothing Is In The Intellect That Was Not First In The Senses.

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

Thus The Law Of Nature Stands As An Eternal Rule To All Men, Legislators As Well As Others. The Rules That They Make For Other Mens Actions, Must, As Well As Their Own And Other Mens Actions, Be Conformable To The Law Of Nature, I.e. To The Will Of God, Of Which That Is A Declaration, And The Fundamental Law Of Nature Being The Preservation Of Mankind, No Human Sanction Can Be Good, Or Valid Against 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.

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.

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 Nobody Has A Right To, But Himself.

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

Justice And Truth Are The Common Ties Of Society

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

The Picture Of A Shadow Is A Positive Thing.

Positive Things

All Wealth Is The Product Of Labor.

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.

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.

Don't Let The Things You Don't Have Prevent You From Using What You Do Have.

As It Is In The Body, So It Is In The Mind; Practice Makes It What It Is, And Most Even Of Those Excellencies, What Are Looked On As Natural Endowments, Will Be Found, When Examined Into More Narrowly, To Be The Product Of Exercise, And To Be Raised To That Pitch, Only By Repeated Actions.

Parents Wonder Why The Streams Are Bitter, When They Themselves Have Poisoned The Fountain.

A Man May Live Long, And Die At Last In Ignorance Of Many Truths, Which His Mind Was Capable Of Knowing, And That With Certainty.

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.

The Greatest Part Cannot Know, And Therefore They Must Believe.

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.

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.

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.

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

You Shall Find, That There Cannot Be A Greater Spur To The Attaining What You Would Have The Eldest Learn, And Know Himself, Than To Set Him Upon Teaching It His Younger Brothers And Sisters.

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

Mathematical Proofs, Like Diamonds, Are Hard And Clear, And Will Be Touched With Nothing But Strict Reasoning.

Slavery Is So Vile And Miserable An Estate Of Man, And So Directly Opposite To The Generous Temper And Courage Of Our Nation; That 'tis Hardly To Be Conceived, That An Englishman, Much Less A Gentleman, Should Plead For't.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Inclination To Goodness Is Imprinted Deeply In The Nature Of Man; Insomuch, That If It Issue Not Towards Men, It Will Take Unto Other Living Creatures; As It Is Seen In The Turks, Cruel People, Who, Nevertheless, Are Kind To Beasts, And Give Alms To Dogs And Birds.

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

Defects And Weakness In Men's Understandings, As Well As Other Faculties, Come From Want Of A Right Use Of Their Own Minds; I Am Apt To Think, The Fault Is Generally Mislaid Upon Nature, And There Is Often A Complaint Of Want Of Parts, When The Fault Lies In Want Of A Due Improvement Of Them.

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.

I Esteem It Above All Things Necessary To Distinguish Exactly The Business Of Civil Government From That Of Religion And To Settle The Just Bounds That Lie Between The One And The Other.

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.

God, When He Makes The Prophet, Does Not Unmake The Man.

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.

No Man's Knowledge Here Can Go Beyond His Experience.

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

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.

With Books We Stand On The Shoulders Of Giants.

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

Revolt Is The Right Of The People

A King Is A Mortal God On Earth, Unto Whom The Living God Hath Lent His Own Name As A Great Honour; But Withal Told Him, He Should Die Like A Man, Lest He Should Be Proud, And Flatter Himself That God Hath With His Name Imparted Unto Him His Nature Also.

Nature Never Makes Excellent Things, For Mean Or No Uses: And It Is Hardly To Be Conceived, That Our Infinitely Wise Creator, Should Make So Admirable A Faculty, As The Power Of Thinking, That Faculty Which Comes Nearest The Excellency Of His Own Incomprehensible Being, To Be So Idlely And Uselesly Employ'd, At Least 1/4 Part Of Its Time Here, As To Think Constantly, Without Remembering Any Of Those Thoughts, Without Doing Any Good To It Self Or Others, Or Being Anyway Useful To Any Other Part Of Creation.

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.

Rules To Live By

Wherever Law Ends, Tyranny Begins.

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

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.

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.

These Two, I Say, Viz. External Material Things, As The Objects Of Sensation, And The Operations Of Our Own Minds Within, As The Objects Of Reflection, Are To Me The Only Originals From Whence All Our Ideas Take Their Beginnings.

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?

What Humanity Abhors, Custom Reconciles And Recommends To Us.

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.

Liberty Is To Be Free From Restraint And Violence From Others

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

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.

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

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.

The Discipline Of Desire Is The Background Of Character.

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

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.

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.

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.

[i]t Being Reasonable And Just, I Should Have A Right To Destroy That Which Threatens Me With Destruction: For By The Fundamental Law Of Nature, Man Being To Be Preserved As Much As Possible, When All Cannot Be Preserved, The Safety Of The Innocent Is To Be Preferred: And One May Destroy A Man Who Makes War Upon Him, Or Has Discovered An Enmity To His Being, For The Same Reason That He May Kill A Wolf Or A Lion.

If To Break Loose From The Bounds Of Reason, And To Want That Restraint Of Examination And Judgment Which Keeps Us From Choosing Or Doing The Worst, Be Liberty, True Liberty, Madmen And Fools Are The Only Freemen: But Yet, I Think, Nobody Would Choose To Be Mad For The Sake Of Such Liberty, But He That Is Mad Already.

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.

Whensoever, Therefore, The Legislative Shall Transgress This Fundamental Rule Of Society, And Either By Ambition, Fear, Folly, Or Corruption, Endeavour To Grasp Themselves, Or Put Into The Hands Of Any Other, An Absolute Power Over The Lives, Liberties, And Estates Of The People, By This Breach Of Trust They Forfeit The Power The People Had Put Into The Hands... And It Devolves To The People, Who Have A Right To Resume Their Original Liberty, And... Provide For Their Own Safety And Security.

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

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

There Are Two Sides, Two Players. One Is Light, The Other Is Dark.

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.

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, 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.

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 Men Are Liable To Error; And Most Men Are, In Many Points, By Passion Or Interest, Under Temptation To It.

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

Brutes Abstract Not. -- If It May Be Doubted, Whether Beasts Compound And Enlarge Their Ideas, That Way, To Any Degree; This, I Think, I May Be Positive In, That The Power Of Abstracting Is Not At All In Them; And That The Having Of General Ideas Is That Which Puts A Perfect Distinction Betwixt Man And Brutes, And Is An Excellency Which The Faculties Of Brutes Do By No Means Attain To.

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.

Fortitude Is The Guard And Support Of The Other Virtues.

Trending Author

Christine Lagarde

Michelle Pfeiffer

Category