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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.

-John Locke

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Whosoever Will List Himself

John Locke

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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.

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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.

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.

Where There Is No Property There Is No Injustice.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Wherever Law Ends, Tyranny Begins.

The Reason Why Men Enter Into Society Is The Preservation Of Their Property.

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.

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

Liberty Is To Be Free From Restraint And Violence From Others

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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?

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 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.

Curiosity In Children Is But An Appetite For Knowledge.

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.

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

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

Fortitude Is The Guard And Support Of The Other Virtues.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

Set The Mind To Work, And Apply The Thoughts Vigorously To The Business, For It Holds In The Struggles Of The Mind, As In Those Of War, That To Think We Shall Conquer Is To Conquer.

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.

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.

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. . . .

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

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.

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

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.

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

The Care Of Souls Cannot Belong To The Civil Magistrate.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

..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 Man May Live Long, And Die At Last In Ignorance Of Many Truths, Which His Mind Was Capable Of Knowing, And That With Certainty.

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

He That Has His Chains Knocked Off, And The Prison Doors Set Open To Him, Is Perfectly At Liberty, Because He May Either Go Or Stay, As He Best Likes; Though His Preference Be Determined To Stay, By The Darkness Of The Night, Or Illness Of The Weather, Or Want Of Other Lodging.

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

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

Inspirational Success

Hope Of Success

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

What Humanity Abhors, Custom Reconciles And Recommends To Us.

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.

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

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

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

'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.

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.

Men In Great Place Are Thrice Servants; Servants Of The Sovereign State, Servants Of Fame, And Servants Of Business; So As They Have No Freedom, Neither In Their Persons, Nor In Their Actions, Nor In Their Times. It Is A Strange Desire To Seek Power And To Lose Liberty; Or To Seek Power Over Others, And To Lose Power Over A Man's Self.

The 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

It Is Labour Indeed That Puts The Difference On Everything.

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

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.

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

Understanding Like The Eye; Whilst It Makes Us See And Perceive All Things, Takes No Notice Of Itself; And It Requires Art And Pains To Set It At A Distance And Make It Its Own Subject.

The 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.

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.

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

The Body Of People May With Respect Resist Intolerable Tyranny.

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.

Who Lies For You Will Lie Against You.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

What Worries You, Masters You.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[individuals] Have A Right To Defend Themselves And Recover By Force What By Unlawful Force Is Taken From Them.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

[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.

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

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.

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.

Where There Is No Law There Is No Freedom.

The Most Precious Of All Possessions Is Power Over Ourselves.

Self Discipline

I Pretend Not To Teach, But To Inquire.

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?

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.

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.

Try All Things, Hold Fast That Which Is 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.

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

Struggle Is Nature's Way Of Strengthening It

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

The Indians , Whom We Call Barbarous, Observe Much More Decency And Civility In Their Discourses And Conversation, Giving One Another A Fair Silent Hearing Till They Have Quite Done; And Then Answering Them Calmly, And Without Noise Or Passion. And If It Be Not So In This Civiliz'd Part Of The World, We Must Impute It To A Neglect In Education, Which Has Not Yet Reform'd This Antient Piece Of Barbarity Amongst Us.

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

All Wealth Is The Product Of Labor.

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.

The Picture Of A Shadow Is A Positive Thing.

Positive Things

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

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

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

Nature Never Makes Excellent Things, For Mean Or No Uses: And It Is Hardly To Be Conceived, That Our Infinitely Wise Creator, Should Make So Admirable A Faculty, As The Power Of Thinking, That Faculty Which Comes Nearest The Excellency Of His Own Incomprehensible Being, To Be So Idlely And Uselesly Employ'd, At Least 1/4 Part Of Its Time Here, As To Think Constantly, Without Remembering Any Of Those Thoughts, Without Doing Any Good To It Self Or Others, Or Being Anyway Useful To Any Other Part Of Creation.

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

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.

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.

With Books We Stand On The Shoulders Of Giants.

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.

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.

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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