Quotes by John Locke

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

The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Things of this world are in so constant a flux, that nothing remains long in the same state.

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.

“To love truth for truths sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues.”