John Locke (1632–1704) was an English philosopher and political theorist. This founder of British empiricism and political liberalism greatly influenced modern philosophical empiricism and political theory through his writings. He endeavored to focus philosophy on an analysis of the extent and capabilities of the human mind. Two centuries later, the British philosopher John Stuart Mill called Locke the “unquestioned founder of the analytic philosophy of mind.”
In Two Treatises of Government (1690,) Locke justified the Revolution of 1688 by contending that, counter to the theory of the divine right of kings, the authority of rulers has a human origin and is limited. In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690,) he negated that any ideas are innate, and argued instead that all knowledge is rooted in experience derived from the senses. He established that it is not possible to know everything about the world and that our inadequate knowledge must be fortified by faith.
Regarded as one of the first of the British empiricists, in the tradition of Francis Bacon, Locke is equally important to social contract theory. His works greatly affected the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. Locke’s contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory even influenced the United States Declaration of Independence.
Locke’s Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) argued that religion is a matter for each individual and that churches are voluntary associations. The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695) provoked more controversy than the political works. Some Thoughts concerning Education (1693) argued for a broader syllabus and a more humane attitude towards pupils.
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Children generally hate to be idle.—All the care then should be, that their busy humor should be constantly employed in something that is of use to them.
—John Locke
Topics: Children
Fortitude I take to be the quiet possession of a man’s self, and an undisturbed doing his duty whatever evils beset, or dangers lie in the way.—In itself an essential virtue, it is a guard to every other virtue.
—John Locke
Every man has a property in his own person; this nobody has a right to but himself.
—John Locke
Topics: Slavery
Error is not a fault of our knowledge, but a mistake of our judgment giving assent to that which is not true.
—John Locke
There cannot be a greater rudeness than to interrupt another in the current of his discourse.
—John Locke
Topics: Communication, Conversation
Where all is but dream, reasoning and arguments are of no use, truth and knowledge nothing.
—John Locke
Topics: Arguments
The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others.
—John Locke
Topics: Knowledge, Understanding
So difficult it is to show the various meanings and imperfections of words when we have nothing else but words to do it with.
—John Locke
Topics: Words
Some persons depress their own minds, despond at the first difficulty, and conclude that making any progress in knowledge, further than serves their ordinary business, is above their capacity.
—John Locke
Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature: these are the spur and reins whereby all mankind are set on work, and guided.
—John Locke
Topics: Humankind, Humanity
Kind words prevent a good deal of that perverseness which rough and imperious usage often produces in generous minds.
—John Locke
Topics: Kindness
It is easier for a tutor to command than to teach.
—John Locke
Topics: Teaching, Teachers
He that has found a way to keep a child’s spirit easy, active, and free, and yet at the same time to restrain him from many things he has a mind to, and to draw him to things that are uneasy to him, has, in my opinion, got the true secret of education.
—John Locke
Topics: Education
All men are liable to error, and most men are … by passion or interest, under temptation to it.
—John Locke
Topics: Mistakes, Failures
I believe half the unhappiness in life comes from people being afraid to go straight at things.
—John Locke
Topics: Action, Happiness, Courage
Habits work more constantly and with greater force than reason, which, when we hare most need of it, is seldom fairly consulted, and more rarely obeyed.
—John Locke
Topics: Habit
Reverie is when ideas float in our mind without reflection or regard of the understanding.
—John Locke
Fear is an uneasiness of the mind, upon the thought of a future evil likely to befall us.
—John Locke
Topics: Fear, Anxiety
I can tell you how to get what you want: You’ve just got to keep a thing in view and go for it and never let your eyes wander to right or left or up or down. And looking back is fatal.
—John Locke
Topics: Goals, Aspirations
Virtue is everywhere that which is thought praiseworthy; and nothing else but that which has the allowance of public esteem is called virtue.
—John Locke
Topics: Virtue
If by gaining knowledge we destroy our health, we labour for a thing that will be useless in our hands.
—John Locke
Topics: Health
Affectation is an awkward and forced imitation of what should be genuine and easy, wanting the beauty that accompanies what is natural.
—John Locke
Topics: Affectation, Manners
The Care therefore of every man’s Soul belongs unto himself, and is to be left unto himself. But what if he neglect the Care of his Soul?. I answer, What if he neglects the Care of his Health, or of his Estate, which things are nearlier related to the Government of the Magistrate than the other?. Will the magistrate provide by an express Law, That such an one shall not become poor or sick?. Laws provide, as much as is possible, that the Goods and Health of Subjects be not injured by the Fraud and Violence of others; they do not guard them from the Negligence or Ill-husbandry of the Possessors themselves
—John Locke
Topics: Welfare
But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression
—John Locke
Topics: Oppression
Logic is the anatomy of thought.
—John Locke
Topics: Logic
To give a man full knowledge of morality, I would send him to no other book than the New Testament.
—John Locke
Topics: Morality, Morals
Had the King of Spain employed the hands of his people, and his Spanish iron so, he had brought to light but little of that treasure that lay so long hid in the dark entrails of America.
—John Locke
Topics: America
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, all sincere; nothing too much; nothing wanting.
—John Locke
Topics: Bible
All the arts of rhetoric, besides order and clearness, are for nothing else but to insinuate wrong ideas, move the passions, and thereby mislead the judgment.
—John Locke
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.
—John Locke
Topics: Curiosity
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