John Locke Quotes
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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.
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They should always be heard, and fairly and kindly answer'd, when they ask after any thing they would know, and desire to be informed about. Curiosity should be as carefully cherish'd in children, as other appetites suppress'd.
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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.
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He that will have his son have a respect for him and his orders, must himself have a great reverence for his son. Maxima debetur pueris reverentia The greatest respect is owed to the children.
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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.
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God is the place of spirits, as spaces are the places of bodies.
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Though the familiar use of things about us take off our wonder, yet it cures not our ignorance.
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The care of souls cannot belong to the civil magistrate.
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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.
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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.
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To be rational is so glorious a thing, that two-legged creatures generally content themselves with the title.
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Though the Earth, and all inferior Creatures be common to all Men, yet every Man has a Property in his own Person. Thus no Body has any Right to but himself.
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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.
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He that will have his son have respect for him and his orders, must himself have a great reverence for his son.
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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.
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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 laws, where there is no law there is no freedom.
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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.
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Affectation is an awkward and forced imitation of what should be genuine and easy, wanting the beauty that accompanies what is natural.
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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.
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The difference, so observable in men's understandings and parts, does not arise so much from their natural faculties, as acquired habits.
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So difficult it is to show the various meanings and imperfections of words when we have nothing else but words to do it with.
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It is vain to find fault with those arts of deceiving wherein men find pleasure to be deceived.
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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.
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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.