John Locke

All wealth is the product of labor.

Men, being by nature all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent.

Our lives are short, and the time we have is precious.

The greatest part of mankind are more swayed by custom than by reason.

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

I have always found that the best way to learn anything is to teach it to others.

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

The only way whereby any one divests himself of his Natural Liberty, and puts on the bonds of Civil Society, is by agreeing with other Men to joyn and unite into a Community, for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living one amongst another, in a secure enjoyment of their Properties, and a greater Security against any that are not of it.

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

Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him.

Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has any right to but himself.

Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.

The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.

The business of men is to be happy; but in this world, I think it is enough if we can avoid being miserable.

Where there is no law, there is no freedom.

Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property.

We are born with faculties and powers, capable almost of anything, such at least as would carry us farther than can be easily imagined: but it is only the exercise of those powers, which gives us ability and skill in anything, and leads us out into the way of knowledge.

Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas; how comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from EXPERIENCE.

He that knows the world, will not be too fastidious, or censorious of the manners of others.

The commonwealth seems to me to be a society of men constituted only for the procuring, preserving, and advancing their own civil interests.