Frases de John Locke

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“Pais se perguntam porque os rios são amargos, quando eles mesmo envenenaram a fonte.”

“Uma coisa é demonstrar a um homem que ele está errado, outra é colocá-lo de posse da verdade.”

“O homem nasce como se fosse uma folha em branco”

“Não se revolta um povo inteiro senão quando a opressão é geral.”

“A influência do exemplo é penetrantíssima na alma.”

“Não se é homem de espírito por ter muitas ideias, assim como não se é grande general por ter muitos soldados.”

“O homem que vive de acordo com a razão tem o coração de uma máquina de coser.”

“As leis fizeram-se para os homens e não para as leis.”

“O homem exposto à vontade arbitrária de um homem que comandasse cem mil homens estaria em piores condições do que um que estivesse exposto ao poder arbitrário de cem mil homens sozinhos.”

“O homem delega poder aos governantes para que, então, ele possa conduzir a preservação de si mesmo e de toda a humanidade.”

“A liberdade de um indivíduo na sociedade não deve estar subordinada a qualquer poder legislativo que não aquele estabelecido pelo consentimento na comunidade nem sob o domínio de qualquer vontade ou restrição de qualquer lei, a não ser aquele promulgado por tal legislativo conforme o crédito que lhe foi confiado.”

“A necessidade de procurar a verdadeira felicidade é o fundamento da nossa liberdade.”

“Ser livre é ter a liberdade de ditar suas ações e dispor de seus bens, e de todas as suas propriedades, de acordo com as leis regentes. Dessa forma, não ser sujeito à vontade arbitrária de outros, podendo seguir livremente a sua própria vontade.”

“O poder no qual se tem liberdade de ação quando para o bem público, sem a prescrição da lei, e, às vezes mesmo contra ela, é o que chamamos de prerrogativa.”

“Um filho herda a mesma liberdade do pai; e a mesma compreensão, que o orientará até que alcance a sua própria.”

“É preciso metade do tempo para usar a outra.”

“Ler fornece conhecimento à mente. Pensar incorpora o que lemos.”

“Uma infinidade de seres inferiores ao ser humano prova uma infinidade de seres superiores a ele.”

“As novas opiniões são sempre suspeitas e geralmente opostas, por nenhum outro motivo além do fato de ainda não serem comuns.”

“Ler fornece ao espírito materiais para o conhecimento, mas só o pensar faz nosso o que lemos.”

“Além disso, ninguém pode reivindicar, em nome da religião, o privilégio da tolerância, se elimina radicalmente toda a religião mediante o ateísmo.”

“Quando não há mais motivos, a continuação de costumes pode nos levar a absurdos grosseiros.”

“As coisas deste mundo estão em fluxo tão constante que nada permanece muito tempo no mesmo estado. Dessa forma, o povo, as riquezas, o comércio, o poder mudam suas condições.”

“O prazer e a dor e os que os produz, o saber, o bem e o mal, são os eixos em que assentam todas as nossas paixões.”

“Não é a mudança da presente condição talvez causada pela corrupção ou pelo declínio que gera desconforto ao governo, mas sua tendência de prejudicar e oprimir o povo, diferenciar parte ou partes de uma injusta submissão.”

“Considerando terem renunciado em favor de um poder arbitrário absoluto e da vontade de um legislador, eles estariam desarmados e o teriam armado, tornando-se presas fáceis para quando e como ele quisesse.”

“Os pais têm uma espécie de jurisdição, mesmo que temporária, sobre seus filhos após o nascimento e durante algum tempo. À medida que crescem são libertados lentamente pela idade e razão até que alcancem, sua própria liberdade sozinhos.”

“É o trabalho que faz toda diferença.”

“O estado de natureza caracteriza-se pela situação em que os homens vivem de acordo com a razão, sem um superior que lhes seja comum no planeta com autoridade para proferir julgamentos entre eles.”

“Há quanto tempo você mantém essas palavras em sua cabeça, esperando usá-las?”

“(…) todo homem livre da Carolina deve ter absoluto poder e autoridade sobre seus escravos negros seja qual for sua opinião e religião.”

“(…) os papistas são como serpentes, nunca vai se conseguir com um tratamento gentil que abram mão de seu veneno" in "An Essay Concerning Toleration”

“Abandonando a razão, que é a regra dada entre homem e homem, e usando a força, à maneira das bestas, ele se torna sujeito a ser destruído por aquele contra quem ele usa força, como qualquer voraz besta selvagem que é perigosa a sua pessoa.”

“É mais fácil avaliar do espírito de qualquer pessoa pelas suas perguntas do que pelas suas respostas.”

“O modo mais adequado para impedir o mal é mostrar o perigo e a injustiça aos que estão em posição mais vulnerável a cair nessa grande tentação.”

“Aquele que fosse desrespeitoso e prejudicial nas florestas da América provavelmente não agiria de forma melhor ao ocupar um trono, em que talvez o aprendizado e a religião fossem utilizados para justificar tudo o que desejasse fazer aos seus súditos, mas a espada, então silenciaria os que questionassem suas ordens.”

“E acumular mais do que podia usar ou consumir era mesmo uma tolice, um verdadeiro ato de desonestidade.”

“Os frutos e a caça, que servem de nutrientes ao índio selvagem - que não conhece limites nem áreas cercadas, mas que é um habitante familiar à área - devem ser de seus e de seus filhos, pois são parte dele.”

“O povo não pode delegar ao governo o poder de fazer qualquer coisa que seria ilegal para eles mesmos.”

“To prejudge other men's notions before we have looked into them is not to show their darkness but to put out our own eyes.”

“Success in fighting means not coming at your opponent the way he wants to fight you.”

“All wealth is the product of labor.”

“Our Business here is not to know all things, but those which concern our conduct.”

“The great question which, in all ages, has disturbed mankind, and brought on them the greatest part of their mischiefs… has been, not whether be power in the world, nor whence it came, but who should have it.”

“A sound mind in a sound body, is a short but full description of a happy state in this world.”

“…when I had gone through the whole, and saw what a plain, simple, reason able thing Christianity was, suited to all conditions and capacities; and in the morality of it now, with divine authority, established into a legible law, so far surpassing all that philosophy and human reason had attained to, or could possibly make effectual to all degrees of man kind; I was flattered to think it might be of some use in the world; especially to those, who thought either that there was no need of revelation at all, or that the revelation of our Saviour required the belief of such articles for salvation, which the settled notions, and their way of reasoning in some, and want of understanding in others, made impossible to them. Upon these two topics the objections seemed to turn, which were with most assurance made by deists, against Christianity; but against Christianity misunderstood. It seemed to me, that there needed no more to show them the weakness of their exceptions, but to lay plainly before them the doctrine of our Saviour and his apostles, as delivered in the scriptures, and not as taught by the several sects of Christians.”

“Reason, if consulted with, would advise, that their children's time should be spent in acquiring what might be useful to them when they come to be men, rather than to have their heads stuff'd with a deal of trash, a great part whereof they usually never do ('tis certain they never need to) think on again as long as they live: and so much of it as does stick by them they are only the worse for.”

“There is no virtue they should be excited to, nor fault they should be kept from, which I do not think they may be convinced of; but it must be by such reasons as their age and understandings are capable of, and those propos'd always in very few and plain words.”

“To understand political power aright, and derive from it its original, we must consider what estate all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of Nature, without asking leave or depending upon the will of any other man.”

“There cannot any one moral Rule be propos'd, whereof a Man may not justly demand a Reason.”

“Those truly natural wants, which reason alone, without some other help, is not able to fence against, nor keep from disturbing us. The pains of sickness and hurts, hunger, thirst, and cold, want of sleep and rest or relaxation of the part weary'd with labour, are what all men feel and the best dispos'd minds cannot but be sensible of their uneasiness; and therefore ought, by fit applications, to seek their removal, though not with impatience, or over great haste, upon the first approaches of them, where delay does not threaten some irreparable harm. The pains that come from the necessities of nature, are monitors to us to beware of greater mischiefs, which they are the forerunner of; and therefore they must not be wholly neglected, and strain'd too far. But yet the more children can be inur'd to hardships of this kind, by a wise care to make them stronger in body and mind, the better it will be for them.”

“When by these steps he has got resolution enough not to be deterr'd from what he ought to do, by the apprehension of danger; when fear does not, in sudden or hazardous occurrences, decompose his mind, set his body a-trembling, and make him unfit for action, or run away from it, he has then the courage of a rational creature: and such an hardiness we should endeavour by custom and use to bring children to, as proper occasions come in our way.”

“I am sure, zeal or love for truth can never permit falsehood to be used in the defence of it.”

“…the church of England, when she baptizes any one, makes him not a Christian […] the church of England is mistaken, and makes none but socinians Christians”

“…faith and repentance, i. e. believing Jesus to be the Messiah, and a good life, are the indispensable conditions of the new covenant, to be performed by all those who would obtain eternal life. (The reasonableness, or rather necessity of which, that we may the better comprehend, we must a little look back to what was said in the beginning”

“The first step to get this noble and manly steadiness, is… carefully keep children from frights of all kinds, when they are young. …Instances of such who in a weak timorous mind, have borne, all their whole lives through, the effects of a fright when they were young, are every where to be seen, and therefore as much as may be to be prevented.”

“I do not say this, that I think there should be no difference of opinions in conversation, nor opposition in men's discourses… 'Tis not the owning one's dissent from another, that I speak against, but the manner of doing it.”

“The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which would be unlawful for them to do themselves.”

“The old question will be asked in this matter of prerogative, But who shall be judge when this power is made a right use of? 1 answer: between an executive power in being, with such a prerogative, and a legislative that depends upon his will for their convening, there can be no judge on earth; as there can be none between the legislative and the people, should either the executive, or the legislative, when they have got the power in their hands, design, or go about to enslave or destroy them. The people have no other remedy in this, as in all other cases where they have no judge on earth, but to appeal to heaven: for the rulers, in such attempts, exercising a power the people never put into their hands, (who can never be supposed to consent that any body should rule over them for their harm) do that which they have not a right to do. And where the body of the people, or any single man, is deprived of their right, or is under the exercise of a power without right, and have no appeal on earth, then they have a liberty to appeal to heaven, whenever they judge the cause of sufficient moment. And therefore, though the people cannot be judge, so as to have, by the constitution of that society, any superior power, to determine and give effective sentence in the case; yet they have, by a law antecedent and paramount to all positive laws of men, reserved that ultimate determination to themselves which belongs to all mankind, where there lies no appeal on earth, viz. to judge, whether they have just cause to make their appeal to heaven. And this judgment they cannot part with, it being out of a man's power so to submit himself to another, as to give him a liberty to destroy him; God and nature never allowing a man so to abandon himself, as to neglect his own preservation: and since he cannot take away his own life, neither can he give another power to take it. Nor let any one think, this lays a perpetual foundation for disorder; for this operates not, till the inconveniency is so great, that the majority feel it, and are weary of it, and find a necessity to have it amended. But this the executive power, or wise princes, never need come in the danger of: and it is the thing, of all others, they have most need to avoid, as of all others the most perilous.”

“Inuring children gently to suffer some degrees of pain without shrinking, is a way to gain firmness to their minds, and lay a foundation for courage and resolution in the future part of their lives.”

“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.”

“Since sounds have no natural connection with our ideas … the doubtfulness and uncertainty of their signification … has its cause more in the ideas they stand for than in any incapacity there is in one sound more than another to signify any idea.”

“The softer you find your child is, the more you are to seek occasions, at fit times, thus to harden him. The great art in this is, to begin with what is but very little painful, and to proceed by insensible degrees, when you are playing, and in good humour with him, and speaking well of him: and when you have once got him to think himself made amends for his suffering by the praise is given him for his courage; when he can take pride in giving such marks of his manliness, and can prefer the reputation of being brave and stout, to the avoiding a little pain, or the shrinking under it; you need nor despair in time and by the assistance of his growing reason, to master his timorousness, and mend the weakness of his constitution.”

“That which is static and repetitive is boring. That which is dynamic and random is confusing. In between lies art.”

“Long discourses, and philosophical readings, at best, amaze and confound, but do not instruct children. When I say, therefore, that they must be treated as rational creatures, I mean that you must make them sensible, by the mildness of your carriage, and in the composure even in the correction of them, that what you do is reasonable in you, and useful and necessary for them; and that it is not out of caprichio, passion or fancy, that you command or forbid them any thing.”

“Sophistry is only fit to make men more conceited in their ignorance.”

“You shall find, that there cannot be a greater spur to the attaining what you would have the eldest learn, and know himself, than to set him upon teaching it his younger brothers and sisters.”

“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.”