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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.

-John Locke

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The Indians , Whom

John Locke

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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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Every Man Being Conscious To Himself, That He Thinks, And That Which His Mind Is Employ'd About Whilst Thinking, Being The Ideas, That Are There, 'tis Past Doubt, That Men Have In Their Minds Several Ideas, Such As Are Those Expressed By The Words, Whiteness, Hardness, Sweetness, Thinking, Motion, Man, Elephant, Army, Drunkenness, And Others: It Is In The First Place Then To Be Inquired, How He Comes By Them? I Know It Is A Received Doctrine, That Men Have Native Ideas, And Original Characters Stamped Upon Their Minds, In Their Very First Being.

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 Necessity Of Pursuing True Happiness Is The Foundation Of All Liberty- Happiness, In Its Full Extent, Is The Utmost Pleasure We Are Capable Of.

I Attribute The Little I Know To My Not Having Been Ashamed To Ask For Information, And To My Rule Of Conversing With All Descriptions Of Men On Those Topics That Form Their Own Peculiar Professions And Pursuits.

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.

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

It Is Labour Indeed That Puts The Difference On Everything.

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.

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

Reason Must Be Our Last Judge And Guide In Everything.

Where There Is No Law There Is No Freedom.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Logic Is The Anatomy Of Thought.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

[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.

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

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

Action Is The Great Business Of Mankind, And The Whole Matter About Which All Laws Are Conversant.

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

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.

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.

Liberty Is To Be Free From Restraint And Violence From Others

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Try All Things, Hold Fast That Which Is Good.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

All Wealth Is The Product Of Labor.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Wherever Law Ends, Tyranny Begins.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Inspirational Success

Hope Of Success

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.

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.

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.

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.

In The Beginning, All The World Was America.

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.

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.

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

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.

It Is Therefore Worthwhile, To Search Out The Bounds Between Opinion And Knowledge; And Examine By What Measures, In Things, Whereof We Have No Certain Knowledge, We Ought To Regulate Our Assent, And Moderate Our Persuasions.

Certain Knowledge

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

..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.

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.

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

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.

The Most Precious Of All Possessions Is Power Over Ourselves.

Self Discipline

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.

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.

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

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

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 Discipline Of Desire Is The Background Of Character.

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

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

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.

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. . . .

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Where There Is No Property There Is No Injustice.

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

Time Management

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

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

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.

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

What Worries You, Masters You.

What Humanity Abhors, Custom Reconciles And Recommends To Us.

The Mind Is Furnished With Ideas By Experience Alone

Who Lies For You Will Lie Against You.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Struggle Is Nature's Way Of Strengthening It

I Pretend Not To Teach, But To Inquire.

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.

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

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

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.

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George Balanchine

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