John Locke Quotes on Man (14 Quotes)

Till a man can judge whether they be truths or not, his understanding is but little improved, and thus men of much reading, though greatly learned, but may be little knowing.

Man... hath by nature a power.... to preserve his property - that is, his life, liberty, and estate - against the injuries and attempts of other men.

I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.

Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative power vested in it a liberty to follow my own will in all things, when the rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to the inconstant, unknown, arbitrary will of another man.

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

The great men among the ancients understood very well how to reconcile manual labour with affairs of state, and thought it no lessening to their dignity to make the one the recreation to the other. That indeed which seems most generally to have employed and diverted their spare hours, was agriculture. Gideon among the Jews was taken from threshing, as well as Cincinnatus amongst the Romans from the plough, to command the armies of their countries ... and, as I remember, Cyrus thought gardening so little beneath the dignity and grandeur of a throne, that he showed Xenophon a large field of fruit trees all of his own planting ... Delving, planting, inoculating, or any the like profitable employments would be no less a diversion than any of the idle sports in fashion, if men could be brought to delight in them.

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

An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; A villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards.

Virtue is harder to be got than knowledge of the world and, it lost in a young man, is seldom recovered.

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

Though I have said above.... That all men by Nature are equal, I cannot be supposed to understand all sorts of Equality Age or Virtue may give Men a just Precedency Excellency of Parts and Merit may place others above the common level Birth may subject some, and Alliance or Benefits others, to pay an Observance to those to whom Nature, Gratitude or other Respects may have made it due and yet all this consists with the Equality which all men are in, in respect of Jurisdiction or Dominion one over another, which was the Equality I there spoke of ... being that equal Right that every Man hath, to his natural Freedom, without being subjected to the Will or Authority of any other Man.

To give a man full knowledge of morality, I would send him to no other book than the New Testament.

I attribute the little I know to my not having been ashamed to ask for information, and to my rule of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics that form their own peculiar professions and pursuits.

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.