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.“

“For wherever violence is used, and injury done, though by hands appointed to administer Justice, it is still violence and injury, however colour'd with the Name, Pretences, or Forms of Law, the end whereof being to protect and redress the innocent, by an unbiassed application of it, to all who are under it; wherever that is not bona fide done, War is made upon the Sufferers, who having no appeal on Earth to right them, they are left to the only remedy in such Cases, an appeal to Heaven.”

“Covetousness, and the desire of having in our possession, and under our dominion, more than we have need of, being the root of all evil, should be early and carefully weeded out, and the contrary quality of a readiness to impart to others, implanted. This should be encourag'd by great commendation and credit, and constantly taking care that he loses nothing by his liberality.”

“Let me give two cautions. 1) The one is, that you keep them to the practice of what you would have grow into a habit with them, by kind words, and gentle admonitions, rather as minding them of what they forget, than by harsh rebukes and chiding, as if they were wilfully guilty. 2) Another thing you are to take care of, is, not to endeavour to settle too many habits at once, lest by variety you confound them, and so perfect none. When constant custom has made any one thing easy and natural to 'em, and they practice it without reflection, you may then go on to another.”

“Let him sensibly perceive, that the kindness he shews to others, is no ill husbandry for himself; but that it brings a return in kindness both from those that receive it, and those who look on. Make this a contest among children, who shall out-do one another in this way: and by this means, by a constant practise, children having made it easy to themselves to part with what they have, good nature may be settled in them into a habit, and they may take pleasure, and pique themselves in being kind, liberal and civil, to others.”

“To teach him betimes to love and be good-natur'd to others, is to lay early the true foundation of an honest man; all injustice generally springing from too great love of ourselves and too little of others.”

“Where danger shews it self, apprehension cannot, without stupidity, be wanting; where danger is, sense of danger should be; and so much fear as should keep us awake, and excite our attention, industry, and vigour; but not to disturb the calm use of our reason, nor hinder the execution of what that dictates.”

“Mark what 'tis his mind aims at in the question, and not what words he expresses it in: and when you have informed and satisfied him in that, you shall see how his thoughts will enlarge themselves, and how by fit answers he may be led on farther than perhaps you could have imagine. For knowledge is grateful to the understanding, as light to the eyes.”

“How much education may reconcile young people to pain and sufference, the examples of Sparta do sufficiently shew; and they who have once brought themselves not to think bodily pain the greatest of evils, or that which they ought to stand most in fear of, have made no small advance toward virtue.”

“The beauty or uncomeliness of many things, in good and ill breeding, will be better learnt, and make deeper impressions on them, in the examples of others, than from any rules or instructions can be given about them.”

“The only thing we are naturally afraid of is pain, or loss of pleasure. And because these are not annexed to any shape, colour, or size of visible objects, we are frighted of none of them, till either we have felt pain from them, or have notions put into us that they will do us harm.”

“Encourage therefore his inquisitiveness all you can, by satisfying his demands, and informing his judgement, as far as it is capable. When his reasons are any way tolerable, let him find the credit and commendation of it, without being laugh'd at for his mistake be gently put into the right; and if he shew a forwardness to be reasoning about things that come in his way, take care, as much as you can, that no body check this inclination in him, or mislead it by captious or fallacious ways of talking with him. For when all is done, this is the highest and most important faculty of our minds, deserves the greatest care and attention in cultivating it: the right improvement, and exercise of our reason being the highest perfection that a man can attain to in his life.”

“The boundaries of the species, whereby men sort them, are made by men.”

“He [Jesus] not only forbids actual uncleanness, but all irregular desires, upon pain of hell-fire; causeless divorces; swearing in conversation, as well as forswearing in judgment; revenge; retaliation; ostentation of charity, of devotion, and of fasting; repetitions in prayer, covetousness, worldly care, censoriousness: and on the other side commands loving our enemies, doing good to those that hate us, blessing those that curse us, praying for those that despitefully use us; patience and meekness under injuries, forgiveness, liberality, compassion: and closes all; his particular injunctions, with this general golden rule, Matt. VII. 12, "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do you even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets." And to show how much He is in earnest, and expects obedience to these laws, He tells them, Luke VI. 35, That if they obey, " great shall be their reward."”

“Whoever has used what means he is capable of, for the informing of himself, with a readiness to believe and obey what shall be taught and prescribed by Jesus, his Lord and King, is a true and faithful subject of Christ's kingdom; and cannot be thought to fail in any thing necessary to salvation.”

“Enjoin him to play so many hours every day, and look that he do it; and you shall see he will quickly be sick of it; and willing to leave it. By this means making the recreations you dislike a business to him, he will of himself with delight betake himself to those things you would have him do, especially if they be proposed as rewards for having performed the task in that play which is commanded of him.”

“That which parents should take care of… is to distinguish between the wants of fancy, and those of nature.”

“Thus parents, by humouring and cockering them when little, corrupt the principles of nature in their children, and wonder afterwards to taste the bitter waters, when they themselves have poison’d the fountain.”

“Children should from the beginning be bred up in an abhorrence of killing or tormenting any living creature; and be taught not to spoil or destroy any thing, unless it be for the preservation or advantage of some other that is nobler.”

“The law of faith, being a covenant of free grace, God alone can appoint what shall be necessarily believed by everyone whom He will justify. What is the faith which He will accept and account for righteousness, depends wholly on his good pleasure. For it is of grace, and not of right, that this faith is accepted. And therefore He alone can set the measures of it: and what he has so appointed and declared is alone necessary. No-body can add to these fundamental articles of faith; nor make any other necessary, but what God himself hath made, and declared to be so. And what these are which God requires of those who will enter into, and receive the benefits of the new covenant, has already been shown. An explicit belief of these is absolutely required of all those to whom the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, and salvation through his name proposed.”

“If you punish him for what he sees you practise yourself, he… will be apt to interpret it the peevishness and arbitrary imperiousness of a father, who, without any ground for it, would deny his son the liberty and pleasure he takes himself.”

“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.”

“I doubt not, but from self-evident Propositions, by necessary Consequences, as incontestable as those in Mathematics, the measures of right and wrong might be made out.”

“Popery so threatens and so nearly surrounds us…every sober man would think it seasonable at this time that all dissenting Protestants should be brought to a good understanding and compliance one with another…I think all Protestants ought now by all ways to be stirred up against them [Catholics] as People that have declared themselves ready by blood, violence, and destruction to ruine our Religion and Government…[they] are nothing but either Enemys in our bowells or spies among us, whilst their General commanders whom they blindly obey declare warr, and an unalterable designe to destroy us.”

“He that denies any of the doctrines that Christ has delivered, to be true, denies him to be sent from God, and consequently to be the Messiah; and so ceases to be a Christian.”

“Truly, if the preservation of all mankind, as much as in him lies, were every one's persuasion, as indeed it is every one's duty, and the true principle to regulate our religion, politicks and morality by, the world would be much quieter, and better natur'd than it is.”

“This I think is sufficiently evident, that children generally hate to be idle. All the care then is, that their busy humour should be constantly employ'd in something of use to them; which, if you will attain, you must make what you would have them do a recreation to them, and not a business.”

“And because it may be too great a temptation to human frailty, apt to grasp at power, for the same persons, who have the power of making laws, to have also in their hands the power to execute them, whereby they may exempt themselves from obedience to the laws they make, and suit the law, both in its making, and execution, to their own private advantage…”

“If man in the state of nature be so free, as has been said; if he be absolute lord of his own person and possessions, equal to the greatest, and subject to no body, why will he part with his freedom, this empire, and subject himself to the dominion and control of any other power?”

“As to the having and possessing of things, teach them to part with what they have, easily and freely to their friends, and let them find by experience that the most liberal has always the most plenty, with esteem and commendation to boot, and they will quickly learn to practise it.”