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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

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Power To Do Good

John Locke

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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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Inuring Children Gently To Suffer Some Degrees Of Pain Without Shrinking, Is A Way To Gain Firmness To Their Minds, And Lay A Foundation For Courage And Resolution In The Future Part Of Their Lives.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Now, I Appeal To The Consciences Of Those That Persecute, Torment, Destroy, And Kill Other Men Upon Pretence Of Religion, Whether They Do It Out Of Friendship And Kindness Towards Them Or No? I Say, If All This Be Done Merely To Make Men Christians And Procure Their Salvation, Why Then Do They Suffer Whoredom, Fraud, Malice And Such-like Enormities, Which (according To The Apostle) Manifestly Relish Of Heathenish Corruption, To Predominate So Much And Abound Amongst Their Flocks And People?

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.

[individuals] Have A Right To Defend Themselves And Recover By Force What By Unlawful Force Is Taken From Them.

The Mind Is Furnished With Ideas By Experience Alone

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?

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.

Curiosity In Children Is But An Appetite For Knowledge.

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

Fortitude Is The Guard And Support Of The Other Virtues.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I Pretend Not To Teach, But To Inquire.

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

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

For It Will Be Very Difficult To Persuade Men Of Sense That He Who With Dry Eyes And Satisfaction Of Mind Can Deliver His Brother To The Executioner To Be Burnt Alive, Does Sincerely And Heartily Concern Himself To Save That Brother From The Flames Of Hell In The World To Come.

Revolt Is The Right Of The People

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

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

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

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

[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.

Had You Or I Been Born At The Bay Of Soldania, Possibly Our Thoughts, And Notions, Had Not Exceeded Those Brutish Ones Of The Hotentots That Inhabit There: And Had The Virginia King Apochancana, Been Educated In England, He Had, Perhaps Been As Knowing A Divine, And As Good A Mathematician As Any In It. The Difference Between Him, And A More Improved English-man, Lying Barely In This, That The Exercise Of His Facilities Was Bounded Within The Ways, Modes, And Notions Of His Own Country, And Never Directed To Any Other Or Farther Enquiries.

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

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.

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.

One Unerring Mark Of The Love Of Truth Is Not Entertaining Any Proposition With Greater Assurance Than The Proofs It Is Built Upon Will Warrant.

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.

Where There Is No Law There Is No Freedom.

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.

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.

If By Gaining Knowledge We Destroy Our Health, We Labour For A Thing That Will Be Useless In Our Hands.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Logic Is The Anatomy Of Thought.

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.

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.

Who Lies For You Will Lie Against You.

[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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Revelation In Matters Where Reason Cannot Judge, Or But Probably, Ought To Be Hearkened To. First, Whatever Proposition Is Revealed, Of Whose Truth Our Mind, By Its Natural Faculties And Notions, Cannot Judge, That Is Purely Matter Of Faith, And Above Reason.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Liberty Is To Be Free From Restraint And Violence From Others

What Humanity Abhors, Custom Reconciles And Recommends To Us.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Reason Must Be Our Last Judge And Guide In Everything.

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.

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.

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

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.

As Much Land As A Man Tills, Plants, Improves, Cultivated, And Can Use The Product Of, So Much Is His Property. He By His Labour Does, As It Were, Enclose It From The Common.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Don't Tell Me What I Can't Do!

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

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

Some Eyes Want Spectacles To See Things Clearly And Distinctly: But Let Not Those That Use Them Therefore Say Nobody Can See Clearly Without Them.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

'tis True That Governments Cannot Be Supported Without Great Charge, And It Is Fit Everyone Who Enjoys A Share Of Protection Should Pay Out Of His Estate His Proportion Of The Maintenance Of It.

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.

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

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.

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.

What Worries You, Masters You.

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

The Discipline Of Desire Is The Background Of Character.

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

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.

Any One Reflecting Upon The Thought He Has Of The Delight, Which Any Present Or Absent Thing Is Apt To Produce In Him, Has The Idea We Call Love.

Reflecting Upon

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.

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.

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.

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.

Struggle Is Nature's Way Of Strengthening It

Hence It Is A Mistake To Think, That The Supreme Or Legislative Power Of Any Common-wealth, Can Do What It Will, And Dispose Of The Estates Of The Subject Arbitrarily, Or Take Any Part Of Them At Pleasure.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Most Precious Of All Possessions Is Power Over Ourselves.

Self Discipline

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

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.

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.

..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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Time Management

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Inspirational Success

Hope Of Success

Long Discourses, And Philosophical Readings, At Best, Amaze And Confound, But Do Not Instruct Children. When I Say, Therefore, That They Must Be Treated As Rational Creatures, I Mean That You Must Make Them Sensible, By The Mildness Of Your Carriage, And In The Composure Even In The Correction Of Them, That What You Do Is Reasonable In You, And Useful And Necessary For Them; And That It Is Not Out Of Caprichio, Passion Or Fancy, That You Command Or Forbid Them Any Thing.

Is It Worth The Name Of Freedom To Be At Liberty To Play The Fool?

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

He That Makes Use Of Another's Fancy Or Necessity To Sell Ribbons Or Cloth Dearer To Him Than To Another Man At The Same Time, Cheats Him.

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.

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.

The Care Of Souls Cannot Belong To The Civil Magistrate.

With Books We Stand On The Shoulders Of Giants.

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

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.

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

Justice And Truth Are The Common Ties Of Society

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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Bernadette Devlin

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