John Locke Zitate

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„Ich habe immer gedacht, dass die Handlungen der Menschen die besten Interpreten ihrer Gedanken sind.“

„Arbeit um der Arbeit willen ist gegen die Natur.“

„Keines Menschen Kenntnis kann über seine Erfahrung hinausgehen.“

„Den Schuldigen zu schonen, ist Grausamkeit gegen den Unschuldigen.“

„Je eher du ihn als Mann behandelst, desto eher wird er anfangen, einer zu sein.“

„Die Grundsätze, die Denkweise und der Geschmack der Menschen sind so verschieden, daß schwerlich ein Buch zu finden sein wird, das allen Leute gefällt oder mißfällt.“

„Nichts macht einen zarteren und tieferen Eindruck auf den Geist des Menschen als das Beispiel.“

„Die natürliche Freiheit des Menschen bedeutet, dass er frei ist von jeder höheren Gewalt auf Erden und nicht dem Willen oder der gesetzgebenden Gewalt eines Menschen untersteht, sondern allein das Gesetz der Natur zu seinem Rechtsgrundsatz erhebt.“

„Es kann keine moralische Regel vorgeschlagen werden, von der ein Mensch nicht zu Recht eine Vernunft verlangt.“

„Kinder sollten nicht die Rücksichtnahme auf die menschliche Natur verlieren, wenn es um äußere Umstände geht.“

„Die Freiheit der Natur unterliegt keiner anderen Beschränkung als dem Naturgesetz.“

„Gleichmut mit Unwissenheit für die Wahrheit ist dieser näher als eine Meinung mit grundloser Zuneigung, worin die Hauptquelle des Irrtums liegt.“

„Glück und Unglück sind zwei Zustände, deren äußerste Grenzen wir nicht kennen.“

„Das Volk kann der Regierung nicht die Befugnis übertragen, etwas zu tun, was für sie selbst rechtswidrig wäre.“

„Ich bin sicher, dass Eifer oder Liebe zur Wahrheit niemals zulassen können, dass Falschheit zur Verteidigung der Wahrheit verwendet wird.“

„Was unser Denken begreifen kann, ist kaum ein Punkt, fast gar nichts im Verhältnis zu dem, was es nicht begreifen kann.“

„Jeder Schritt vorwärts, den der Geist auf seinem Wege zur Erkenntnis tut, bringt irgendeine Entdeckung, die nicht nur neu, sondern, im Augenblick wenigstens, auch die wertvollste ist.“

„Was statisch und repetitiv ist, ist langweilig. Was dynamisch und zufällig ist, ist verwirrend. Dazwischen liegt die Kunst.“

„Es gibt zwei Arten von Missbräuchen“

„Wir würden viel weniger Streit in der Welt haben, nähme man die Worte für das, was sie sind - lediglich die Zeichen unserer Ideen und nicht die Dinge selbst.“

„Nichts ist im Verstand, was nicht vorher in den Sinnen gewesen wäre.“

„Sophistik ist nur dazu geeignet, Männer in ihrer Unwissenheit eingebildeter zu machen.“

„Sehen Sie, was seine vorherrschenden Leidenschaften und vorherrschenden Neigungen sind“

„Diese Kraft ist nichts entgegenzusetzen, als ungerechte und rechtswidrige Gewalt.“

„Neugier sollte bei Kindern so sorgfältig gepflegt werden, wie andere Appetitlosigkeit unterdrücken.“

„Erfolg im Kampf bedeutet, dass Sie Ihren Gegner nicht so angreifen, wie er Sie bekämpfen möchte.“

„Ein gesunder Geist in einem gesunden Körper ist eine kurze, aber vollständige Beschreibung eines glücklichen Zustands in dieser Welt.“

„Als Gelehrter hat er sein Lernen nur der Sache der Wahrheit unterworfen.“

„Das Ende des Gesetzes besteht nicht darin, die Freiheit aufzuheben oder einzuschränken, sondern sie zu bewahren und zu erweitern.“

„Falsche und zweifelhafte Positionen, die als unbestreitbare Maximen gelten, halten diejenigen, die darauf aufbauen, von der Wahrheit fern.“

„Er wird die Grundlagen und Maßnahmen von Anstand und Gerechtigkeit besser verstehen und lebendigere und nachhaltigere Eindrücke haben“

„Tugend ist schwerer zu bekommen als Wissen über die Welt.“

„Die Szene sollte sanft geöffnet sein.“

„Wir sind wie Chamäleons; Wir nehmen unseren Farbton und die Farbe unseres moralischen Charakters von denen, die um uns herum sind.“

„Wie lange hast du diese Worte schon im Kopf und gehofft, sie zu benutzen?“

„Eltern wundern sich, warum die Bäche bitter sind, wenn sie selbst den Brunnen vergiften.“

„Aller Reichtum ist das Produkt der Arbeit.“

„Wer seine Worte locker und unsicher verwendet, wird entweder nicht bedacht oder nicht verstanden.“

„Da alle gleich und unabhängig sind, sollte niemand in seinem Leben, seiner Gesundheit, seiner Freiheit oder seinem Besitz einem anderen Schaden zufügen.“

„Der einzige Zaun gegen die Welt ist eine gründliche Kenntnis davon.“

„Aus den unerwarteten Fragen eines Kindes kann man häufig mehr lernen als aus den Gesprächen der Männer.“

„Die Indianer, die wir barbarisch nennen, achten in ihren Reden und Gesprächen auf viel mehr Anstand und Höflichkeit.“

“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.”