Home > Work > Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration
61 " And thus came in the use of money, some lasting thing that men might keep without spoiling, and that by mutual consent men would take in exchange for the truly useful, but perishable supports of life. "
― John Locke , Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration
62 " the case of land and water, where there is enough of both, is perfectly the same. "
63 " equality which all men are in, in respect of jurisdiction or dominion one over another; which was the equality I there spoke of, as proper to the business in hand, being that equal right that every man hath to his natural freedom, without being subjected to the will or authority of any other man. "
64 " I take to be political power; that the power of a magistrate over a subject may be distinguished from that of a father over his children, a master over his servants, a husband over his wife, and a lord over his slave. "
65 " Children, I confess, are not born in this state of equality, though they are born to it. "
66 " it will destroy the authority of the present governors, and absolve the people from subjection to them, since they, having no better claim than others to that power, which is alone the fountain of all authority, can have no title to rule over them. "
67 " Right and conveniency went together; for as a man had a right to all he could employ his labour upon, so he had no temptation to labour for more than he could make use of. This left no room for controversy about the title, nor for encroachment on the right of others ; what portion a man carved to himself was easily seen: and it was useless, as well as dishonest, to carve himself too much, or take more than he needed. "
68 " we consult reason or revelation, "
69 " Political power, then, I take to be a right of making laws with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties, for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community, in the execution of such laws, and in the defence of the commonwealth from foreign injury; and all this only for the public good. "
70 " govern his actions according to the dictates of the law of reason which God had implanted in him. "
71 " all parents were, by the law of nature, "under an obligation to preserve, nourish, and educate the children" they had begotten; not as their own workmanship, but the workmanship of their own maker, the Almighty, to whom they were to be accountable for them. "
72 " To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider what state 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. "
73 " To speak less learnedly, and more intelligibly, "
74 " nobody can be under a law which is not promulgated to him; "
75 " Adam's children, being not presently as soon as born under this law of reason, were not presently free : for law, in its true notion, is not so much the limitation, as the direction of a free and intelligent agent to his proper interest, and prescribes no farther than is for the general good of those under that law: "
76 " justify to the world the people of England, whose love of their just and natural rights, with their resolution to preserve them, saved the nation when it was on the very brink of slavery and ruin. "
77 " When any such declaration of God's intention is produced, it will be our duty to believe God intends it so; but till that be done, our author must show us some better warrant, before we shall be obliged to receive him as the authentic revealer of God's intentions. "
78 " that, however it may be mistaken, the end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve andenlarge freedom: "
79 " not by the force of arguments and opposition, but by the intricacy of the words, "
80 " Dominion of life and death, making war, and concluding peace, p. 13. Adam and the patriarchs had absolute power of life and death, "