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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.

-John Locke

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Whoever Has Used What

John Locke

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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.

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Wherever Law Ends, Tyranny Begins.

Reason Must Be Our Last Judge And Guide In Everything.

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

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.

..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.

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.

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

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.

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. . . .

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

Libertarian Party

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.

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

Where There Is No Property There Is No Injustice.

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.

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.

Fortitude Is The Guard And Support Of The 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.

He That Uses His Words Loosely And Unsteadily Will Either Not Be Minded Or Not Understood.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

All Wealth Is The Product Of Labor.

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 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.

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?

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

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.

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.

The Mind Is Furnished With Ideas By Experience Alone

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

[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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

The Greatest Part Cannot Know, And Therefore They Must Believe.

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.

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.

Every Man Has A Property In His Own Person. This Nobody Has A Right To, But Himself.

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.

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

Inspirational Success

Hope Of Success

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

'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.

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

Time Management

Probability Is A Kind Of Penance, Which God Made, Suitable, I Presume To That State Of Mediocrity And Probationership He Has Been Pleased To Place Us In Here; Wherein, To Check Our Over-confidence And Presumption, We Might, By Every Day's Experience, Be Made Sensible Of Our Short-sightedness, And Liableness To Error.

The Body Of People May With Respect Resist Intolerable Tyranny.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

[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.

It Is Labour Indeed That Puts The Difference On Everything.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Logic Is The Anatomy Of Thought.

A Criminal Who, Having Renounced Reason ... Hath, By The Unjust Violence And Slaughter He Hath Committed Upon One, Declared War Against All Mankind, And Therefore May Be Destroyed As A Lion Or Tiger, One Of Those Wild Savage Beasts With Whom Men Can Have No Society Nor Security.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

If All Be A Dream, Then He Doth But Dream That He Makes The Question; And So It Is Not Much Matter That A Waking Man Should Answer Him.

The Greatest Part Of Mankind ... Are Given Up To Labor, And Enslaved To The Necessity Of Their Mean Condition; Whose Lives Are Worn Out Only In The Provisions For Living.

The 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

All Rising To Great Place Is By A Winding Stair; And If There Be Factions, It Is Good To Side A Man's Self Whilst He Is In The Rising, And To Balance Himself When He Is Placed.

The 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Try All Things, Hold Fast That Which Is Good.

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

Slavery Is So Vile And Miserable An Estate Of Man, And So Directly Opposite To The Generous Temper And Courage Of Our Nation; That 'tis Hardly To Be Conceived, That An Englishman, Much Less A Gentleman, Should Plead For't.

The State Of Nature Has A Law Of Nature To Govern It, Which Obliges Every One: And Reason, Which Is That Law, Teaches All Mankind, Who Will But Consult It.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

The Most Precious Of All Possessions Is Power Over Ourselves.

Self Discipline

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Struggle Is Nature's Way Of Strengthening It

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.

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

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.

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

Beware How In Making The Portraiture Thou Breakest The Pattern: For Divinity Maketh The Love Of Ourselves The Pattern; The Love Of Our Neighbours But The Portraiture.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

The Picture Of A Shadow Is A Positive Thing.

Positive Things

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

It Is Ambition Enough To Be Employed As An Under-labourer In Clearing The Ground A Little, And Removing Some Of The Rubbish That Lies In The Way To Knowledge.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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Jacob August Riis

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