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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.

-John Locke

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This Is That Which

John Locke

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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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Justice And Truth Are The Common Ties Of Society

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

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

Struggle Is Nature's Way Of Strengthening It

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

The Most Precious Of All Possessions Is Power Over Ourselves.

Self Discipline

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.

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.

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

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.

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 Tendency To Cruelty Should Be Watched In Children And If They Incline To Any Such Cruelty, They Should Be Taught The Contrary Usage. For The Custom Of Tormenting And Killing Other Animals Will, By Degrees, Harden Their Hearts Even Toward Man. Children Should From The Beginning, Be Brought Up In An Abhorrence Of Killing Or Tormenting Living Beings.

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.

To Love Our Neighbor As Ourselves Is Such A Truth For Regulating Human Society, That By That Alone One Might Determine All The Cases In Social Morality.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

It Is Labour Indeed That Puts The Difference On Everything.

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.

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

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

In The Beginning, All The World Was America.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Try All Things, Hold Fast That Which Is Good.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

The Great Question Which, In All Ages, Has Disturbed Mankind, And Brought On Them The Greatest Part Of Their Mischiefs ... Has Been, Not Whether Be Power In The World, Nor Whence It Came, But Who Should Have It.

The 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.

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

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

Wherever Law Ends, Tyranny Begins.

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.

What Worries You, Masters You.

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

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.

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

[i]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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 Greatest Part Cannot Know, And Therefore They Must Believe.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Where There Is No Property There Is No Injustice.

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.

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

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

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

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

Libertarian Party

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

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.

Revolt Is The Right Of The People

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Fortitude Is The Guard And Support Of The Other Virtues.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Liberty Is To Be Free From Restraint And Violence From Others

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.

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

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.

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

Reason Must Be Our Last Judge And Guide In Everything.

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

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.

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.

The Body Of People May With Respect Resist Intolerable Tyranny.

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

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

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.

With Books We Stand On The Shoulders Of Giants.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

To Prejudge Other Men's Notions Before We Have Looked Into Them Is Not To Show Their Darkness But To Put Out Our Own Eyes.

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

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

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

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.

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

Time Management

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

The Mind Is Furnished With Ideas By Experience Alone

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

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.

What Humanity Abhors, Custom Reconciles And Recommends To Us.

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

Thorough Knowledge

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

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

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

Logic Is The Anatomy Of Thought.

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

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