Quotes from John Locke

The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property.

The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others.

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.

Where all is but dream, reasoning and arguments are of no use, truth and knowledge nothing.

It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of truth.

If by gaining knowledge we destroy our health, we labour for a thing that will be useless in our hands.

Government has no other end, but the preservation of property.

As people are walking all the time, in the same spot, a path appears.

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.

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.

When ideas float in our mind without any reflection or regard of the understanding, it is that which the French call revery, our language has scarce a name for it.

A dreamer lives forever, and a toiler dies in a day.

Curiosity in children, is but an appetite for knowledge. One 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.

Earthly minds, like mud walls, resist the strongest batteries; and though, perhaps, somethimes 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.

Fashion for the most part is nothing but the ostentation of riches.

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.

Government has no other end than the preservation of property.

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.

Practice conquers the habit of doing, without reflecting on the rule.

Reading furnishes the mind only with material for knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

The action of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.

The dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than the prospect of good.

There cannot be greater rudeness than to interrupt another in the current of his discourse.

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.