"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."
Read quote
7 likes
Quote collection
John Locke quotes (page 8 of 15)
296 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"If to break loose from the bounds of reason, and to want that restraint of examination and judgment which keeps us from choosing or doing the worst, be liberty, true liberty, madmen and fools are the only freemen: but yet, I think, nobody would choose to be mad for the sake of such liberty, but he that is mad already."
Read quote
7 likes
"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."
Read quote
7 likes
"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."
Read quote
7 likes
"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."
Read quote
7 likes
"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."
Read quote
7 likes
"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."
Read quote
7 likes
"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."
Read quote
7 likes
"Anger is uneasiness or discomposure of the mind upon the receipt of any injury, with a present purpose of revenge"
Read quote
7 likes
"The chief art of learning is to attempt but a little at a time."
Read quote
6 likes
"Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature"
Read quote
6 likes
"There are a thousand ways to Wealth, but only one way to Heaven."
Read quote
6 likes
"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?"
Read quote
6 likes
"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."
Read quote
6 likes
"There cannot any one moral rule be proposed whereof a man may not justly demand a reason."
Read quote
6 likes
"Truth, like gold, is not less so for being newly brought out of the mine."
Read quote
6 likes
"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."
Read quote
6 likes
"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."
Read quote
6 likes
"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"
Read quote
6 likes
"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."
Read quote
6 likes