Explore Quotes by John Locke

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.

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.

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

The discipline of desire is the background of character.

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.

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

I have spent more than half a lifetime trying to express the tragic moment.

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.

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.

Where there is no property there is no injustice.

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

Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.

There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.

Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.

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

All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it.

The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom.

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

All wealth is the product of labor.

Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company, and reflection must finish him.

All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.