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

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

Understanding the Quote: "the thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were, drop into..."

This quote by John Locke reflects deeply on the theme of thinking. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Thinking, Ideas, Mind, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how John Locke interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About John Locke

John Locke is celebrated for insightful thoughts on thinking and ideas. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Thinking
Ideas
Mind
More From John Locke
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.
Wall
Mind
Enemy
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.
Wise
Nature
Mean
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.
Memories
Science
Names
That Which Parents Should Take Care Of... Is To Distinguish Between The Wants Of Fancy, And Those Of Nature.
Parent
Fancy
Care
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.
Men
Law
Action
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.
Reading
Thinking
Giving
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.
Fashion
Crafts
Sacred
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?
Christian
Kindness
Men
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.
Funny
Money
Shoes
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
Ignorance
Curiosity
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.
Growing Up
Father
Son
The Chief Art Of Learning Is To Attempt But A Little At A Time.
Art
Learning
Littles
God, When He Makes The Prophet, Does Not Unmake The Man.
Men
Doe
He Man
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.
Education
Teaching
Learning
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.
Character
Religion
Principles
All Men Are Liable To Error; And Most Men Are, In Many Points, By Passion Or Interest, Under Temptation To It.
War
Passion
Men
To Love Our Neighbor As Ourselves Is Such A Truth For Regulating Human Society, That By That Alone One Might Determine All The Cases In Social Morality.
Love
Pregnancy
Might
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.
Men
Self
Balance
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.
Men
Littles
Information
The Discipline Of Desire Is The Background Of Character.
Philosophical
Character
Discipline
Our Business Here Is Not To Know All Things, But Those Which Concern Our Conduct.
Concern
All Things
Knows
This Is My Destiny — I'm Supposed To Do This, Dammit! Don't Tell Me What I Can And Can't Do!
Destiny
My Destiny
I Can
Try All Things, Hold Fast That Which Is Good.
Biblical
Trying
All Things
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.
Children
Haste
Degrees
God Is The Place Of Spirits, As Spaces Are The Places Of Bodies.
Space
Body
Spirit
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.
Children
Thinking
Giving
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
Liberty
Reason
Success In Fighting Means Not Coming At Your Opponent The Way He Wants To Fight You.
Mean
Fighting
Opponents
The Visible Mark Of Extraordinary Wisdom And Power Appear So Plainly In All The Works Of Creation.
Power
Creation
Mark
He That Judges Without Informing Himself To The Utmost That He Is Capable, Cannot Acquit Himself Of Judging Amiss
Judging
Judgement
Prison
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.
Lying
Learning
Ambition
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.
Games
Play
Toys
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.
Atheist
Promise
Atheism
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.
Jesus
Kings
Believe
Liberty Is To Be Free From Restraint And Violence From Others
Liberty
Violence
Restraint
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.
Men
People
Liberty
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.
Loss
Jewels
Care
Logic Is The Anatomy Of Thought.
Education
Knowledge
Math
The Mind Is Furnished With Ideas By Experience Alone
Philosophy
Philosophical
Ideas
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.
Children
Wonder
Chameleon
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.
Independent
Men
Political
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.
Children
Men
Thinking
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
Children
Hate
Use
Nothing Is In The Intellect That Was Not First In The Senses.
Firsts
Intellect
Senses
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.
Eye
Men
Darkness
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.
Country
Kings
Lying
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.
Truth
Honesty
Perfection
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.
Men
Theatre
Merit
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.
Book
Reading
Mind
Don't Tell Me What I Can't Do!
I Can
Truth, Like Gold, Is Not Less So For Being Newly Brought Out Of The Mine.
Gold
Mines
Faith Is The Assent To Any Proposition Not Made Out By The Deduction Of Reason But Upon The Credit Of The Proposer.
Atheism
Credit
Reason
All Wealth Is The Product Of Labor.
Philosophical
Fruit Of Labor
Wealth
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.
Self
Stupidity
Attention
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.
Passion
Giving
Reform
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.
Integrity
Men
Balance
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.
Country
Men
Past
What If Everything That Happened Here, Happened For A Reason?
Faith
Inspiration
What If
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.
Men
Mind
Gold
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.
Memories
Sight
Ideas
That Which Is Static And Repetitive Is Boring. That Which Is Dynamic And Random Is Confusing. In Between Lies Art.
Art
Lying
Confusing
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
Needs
Reason
Habit
Words, In Their Primary Or Immediate Signification, Stand For Nothing But The Ideas In The Mind Of Him Who Uses Them.
Ideas
Mind
Use
To Ask At What Time A Man Has First Any Ideas Is To Ask When He Begins To Perceive; Having Ideas And Perception Being The Same Thing.
Men
Ideas
Perception
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.
Exercise
Practice
Mind
Parents Wonder Why The Streams Are Bitter, When They Themselves Have Poisoned The Fountain.
Philosophical
Parenting
Bitterness
Where There Is No Desire, There Will Be No Industry.
Effort
Desire
Labor
There Is Frequently More To Be Learned From The Unexpected Questions Of A Child Than The Discourses Of Men.
Children
Philosophical
Men
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.
Ignorance
Men
Knowing
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.
Truth
Lying
Men
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.
Pain
Thinking
Evil
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.
Freedom
Law
Ends
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.
Christian
Men
Charity
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.
Education
Knowledge
Two
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.
Children
Taught
Killing
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.
Giving
Doctrine
Way
Practice Conquers The Habit Of Doing, Without Reflecting On The Rule.
Practice
Conquer
Habit
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.
Self
Doubt
Might
Certain Subjects Yield A General Power That May Be Applied In Any Direction And Should Be Studied By All.
Teacher
Yield
May
[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.
Men
Thinking
Blood
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.
Art
Pain
Distance
The Church Which Taught Men Not To Keep Faith With Heretics, Had No Claim To Toleration.
Men
Atheism
Church
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.
Opinion
Persuasion
Certain Knowledge
The People Cannot Delegate To Government The Power To Do Anything Which Would Be Unlawful For Them To Do Themselves.
Government
Libertarian Party
People
Error Is None The Better For Being Common, Nor Truth The Worse For Having Lain Neglected.
Errors
Common
Neglect
Reason Must Be Our Last Judge And Guide In Everything.
Judging
Lasts
Reason
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.
Book
Writing
Successful
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.
Children
Mind
Noble
New Opinions Are Always Suspected, And Usually Opposed, Without Any Other Reason But Because They Are Not Already Common.
Business
Philosophy
War
It Is One Thing To Persuade, Another To Command; One Thing To Press With Arguments, Another With Penalties.
Argument
Penalties
Command
If By Gaining Knowledge We Destroy Our Health, We Labour For A Thing That Will Be Useless In Our Hands.
Health
Hands
Useless
Men's Happiness Or Misery Is [for The] Most Part Of Their Own Making.
Men
Misery
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.
Faith
Ideas
Judging
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.
Teacher
Children
Pain
Good And Evil, Reward And Punishment, Are The Only Motives To A Rational Creature
Philosophical
Punishment
Evil
What Worries You, Masters You.
Inspirational
Life
Perseverance
But There Is Only One Thing Which Gathers People Into Seditious Commotion, And That Is Oppression
People
Oppression
One Thing
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.
Men
Thinking
Order
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.
Hands
Law
Temptation
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.
Inspirational
Philosophical
Taken
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.
Hands
Law
People
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.
Children
Blessing
Men
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.
Hands
Thorough Knowledge
Gentleman
The Most Precious Of All Possessions Is Power Over Ourselves.
Discipline
Self Discipline
Possession
Where There Is No Law There Is No Freedom.
Freedom
Law
Liberty
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.
Eye
Perception
Use
To Be Rational Is So Glorious A Thing, That Two-legged Creatures Generally Content Themselves With The Title.
Two
Titles
Reason
Knowledge Is Grateful To The Understanding, As Light To The Eyes.
Grateful
Eye
Light
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.
Law
Punishment
Balance
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.
Men
Should Have
People
Fashion For The Most Part Is Nothing But The Ostentation Of Riches.
Fashion
Philosophical
Riches
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.
Independent
Equality
Men
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.
Religion
Use
Matter
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.
Simple
Reflection
Ideas
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.
Children
Silly
Curiosity
Though The Familiar Use Of Things About Us Take Off Our Wonder, Yet It Cures Not Our Ignorance.
Ignorance
Use
Wonder
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.
Wisdom
Gun
Men
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.
Men
Thinking
Law
It Is Labour Indeed That Puts The Difference On Everything.
Differences
Labor Day
May Day
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.
Men
Mind
Body
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.
Reflection
Ideas
Two
In Transgressing The Law Of Nature, The Offender Declares Himself To Live By Another Rule Than That Of Reason And Common Equity.
Law
Common
Reason
Fortitude Is The Guard And Support Of The Other Virtues.
Philosophical
Support
Fortitude
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.
Brother
Teaching
Spurs
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. . . .
Truth
Father
Light
Government Has No Other End, But The Preservation Of Property.
Philosophical
Government
Ends
There Are A Thousand Ways To Wealth, But Only One Way To Heaven.
Heaven
Way
Wealth
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.
Art
Memories
Practice
The Dread Of Evil Is A Much More Forcible Principle Of Human Actions Than The Prospect Of Good.
Philosophical
Evil
Perspective
So Difficult It Is To Show The Various Meanings And Imperfections Of Words When We Have Nothing Else But Words To Do It With.
Writing
Imperfection
Difficult
Mathematical Proofs, Like Diamonds, Are Hard And Clear, And Will Be Touched With Nothing But Strict Reasoning.
Math
Proof
Diamond
Virtue Is Everywhere That Which Is Thought Praiseworthy; And Nothing Else But That Which Has The Allowance Of Public Esteem Is Called Virtue.
Virtue
Allowance
Esteem
When We Know Our Own Strength, We Shall The Better Know What To Undertake With Hopes Of Success.
Inspirational
Inspirational Success
Hope Of Success
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.
Father
Son
Liberty
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.
Philosophy
Simple
Men
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.
Pain
Loss
Shapes
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?
Running
Water
Doubt
Don't Let The Things You Don't Have Prevent You From Using What You Do Have.
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.
Government
Law
People
The Greatest Part Cannot Know, And Therefore They Must Believe.
Believe
Knows
Every Man Has A Property In His Own Person. This Nobody Has A Right To, But Himself.
Self Esteem
Philosophical
Men
In The Discharge Of Thy Place Set Before Thee The Best Examples; For Imitation Is A Globe Of Precepts.
Example
Imitation
Thee
'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.
Government
Maintenance
Libertarian
Where There Is No Property There Is No Injustice.
Philosophical
Justice
Injustice
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.
Truth
Agreement
Names
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.
Memories
Men
Perfection
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.
Mistake
Errors
Giving
Curiosity Should Be As Carefully Cherish'd In Children, As Other Appetites Suppress'd.
Children
Curiosity
Cherish
Let Not Men Think There Is No Truth, But In The Sciences That They Study, Or The Books That They Read.
Book
Men
Thinking
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.
Dog
Men
Issues
If Punishment Reaches Not The Mind And Makes Not The Will Supple, It Hardens The Offender.
Punishment
Mind
Prison
Reading Furnishes The Mind Only With Materials Of Knowledge; It Is Thinking That Makes What We Read Ours.
Inspirational
Motivational
Education
The Care Of Souls Cannot Belong To The Civil Magistrate.
Soul
Atheism
Care
What Humanity Abhors, Custom Reconciles And Recommends To Us.
Humanity
Tradition
Reconcile
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.
Pain
Lying
Men
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.
Lying
Government
Atheism
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.
Law
Atheism
Church
Firmness Or Stiffness Of The Mind Is Not From Adherence To Truth, But Submission To Prejudice.
Mind
Adherence
Prejudice
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.
Government
Hands
Law
There Cannot Be Greater Rudeness Than To Interrupt Another In The Current Of His Discourse.
Communication
Rude
Currents
Where All Is But Dream, Reasoning And Arguments Are Of No Use, Truth And Knowledge Nothing.
Dream
Philosophical
Use
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.
Men
Land
Doe
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.
Children
Taken
Teaching
The Body Of People May With Respect Resist Intolerable Tyranny.
People
Body
May
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.
Ambition
Hands
People
The Picture Of A Shadow Is A Positive Thing.
Shadow
Positive Things
Whoso Sheddeth Man's Blood, By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed.
Men
Blood
Criminal Mind
The Difference, So Observable In Men's Understandings And Parts, Does Not Arise So Much From Their Natural Faculties, As Acquired Habits.
Men
Differences
Understanding
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.
War
Mean
Fighting
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.
Children
Philosophical
Reading
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.
Men
Self
Liberty
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.
Karma
Men
Evil
Untruth Being Unacceptable To The Mind Of Man, There Is No Other Defence Left For Absurdity But Obscurity.
Men
Mind
Obscurity
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.
Degrees
Doe
Should
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.
Love
Truth
Science
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.
Intelligent
Thinking
Matter
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
Marketing
Use
Many A Good Poetic Vein Is Buried Under A Trade, And Never Produces Any Thing For Want Of Improvement.
Veins
Want
Improvement
The Reason Why Men Enter Into Society Is The Preservation Of Their Property.
Men
Reason Why
Preservation
All Mankind... Being All Equal And Independent, No One Ought To Harm Another In His Life, Health, Liberty Or Possessions.
Peace
War
Independent
Crooked Things May Be As Stiff And Unflexible As Streight: And Men May Be As Positive And Peremptory In Error As In Truth.
Truth
Science
Men
The Only Fence Against The World Is A Thorough Knowledge Of It.
Education
Wisdom
Philosophical
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.
Children
Pain
Mind
It Is Practice Alone That Brings The Powers Of The Mind, As Well As Those Of The Body, To Their Perfection.
Practice
Perfection
Mind
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.
Fashion
Party
Dark
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.
Ocean
Serendipity
Depth
Curiosity In Children Is But An Appetite For Knowledge.
Children
Curiosity
Appetite
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.
Men
Hands
Desire
Children (nay, And Men Too) Do Most By Example.
Children
Men
Example
I Pretend Not To Teach, But To Inquire.
Teach
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.
Exercise
Government
Tyranny
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.
Men
Rules To Live By
Liberty
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.
Ignorance
Knowledge
Long
He That Will Have His Son Have Respect For Him And His Orders, Must Himself Have A Great Reverence For His Son.
Respect
Son
Order
When Ideas Float In Our Mind, Without Any Reflection Or Regard Of The Understanding, It Is That Which The French Call Reverie.
Dream
Philosophical
Reflection
I Have Always Thought The Actions Of Men The Best Interpreters Of Their Thoughts.
Motivational
Honesty
Integrity
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.
Mistake
Thinking
Hands
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.
Pain
Missing
Mind
..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.
Men
Hands
Liberty
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.
Men
Opposites
Gentleman
Trending Author
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Category
Information