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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.

-John Locke

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Vague And Mysterious Forms

John Locke

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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.

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Revolt Is The Right Of The People

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.

The Discipline Of Desire Is The Background Of Character.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

I Pretend Not To Teach, But To Inquire.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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?

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

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

From Whence It Is Obvious To Conclude That, Since Our Faculties Are Not Fitted To Penetrate Into The Internal Fabrick And Real Essences Of Bodies; But Yet Plainly Discover To Us The Being Of A God, And The Knowledge Of Our Selves, Enough To Lead Us Into A Full And Clear Discovery Of Our Duty, And Great Concernment, It Will Become Us, As Rational Creatures, To Imploy Those Faculties We Have About What They Are Most Adapted To, And Follow The Direction Of Nature, Where It Seems To Point Us Out The Way.

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.

Curiosity In Children Is But An Appetite For Knowledge.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

If Punishment Reaches Not The Mind And Makes Not The Will Supple, It Hardens The Offender.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

..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.

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.

What Humanity Abhors, Custom Reconciles And Recommends To Us.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

'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.

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.

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.

Fortitude Is The Guard And Support Of The Other Virtues.

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

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

With Books We Stand On The Shoulders Of Giants.

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.

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.

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.

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.

All Wealth Is The Product Of Labor.

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.

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

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

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

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

The Most Precious Of All Possessions Is Power Over Ourselves.

Self Discipline

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

The Picture Of A Shadow Is A Positive Thing.

Positive Things

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

It Is Labour Indeed That Puts The Difference On Everything.

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

Inspirational Success

Hope Of Success

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.

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

Time Management

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.

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

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.

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.

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. . . .

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Reason Must Be Our Last Judge And Guide In Everything.

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

Where There Is No Property There Is No Injustice.

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.

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.

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 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.

Try All Things, Hold Fast That Which Is Good.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Libertarian Party

Justice And Truth Are The Common Ties Of Society

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Logic Is The Anatomy Of Thought.

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

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.

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.

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

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

The Care Of Souls Cannot Belong To The Civil Magistrate.

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

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

[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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

What Worries You, Masters You.

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 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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In The Beginning, All The World Was America.

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

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

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.

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

Where There Is No Law There Is No Freedom.

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

[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.

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.

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.

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.

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David James Duncan

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