Two Treatises Of Government Quotes
"Slavery is so vile and miserable an estate of man, and so directly opposite to the generous temper and courage of our nation."
"If any one think I take too much liberty in speaking so freely of a man, who is the great champion of absolute power, and the idol of those who worship it; I beseech him to make this small allowance for once, to one, who, even after the reading of Sir Robert’s book, cannot but think himself, as the laws allow him, a freeman."
"Adam and the patriarchs had absolute power of life and death."
"Dominion of life and death, making war, and concluding peace."
"I have nothing more, but to advertise the Reader, that A stands for our Author. O for his Observations."
"By conferring these proofs and reasons, drawn from the authority of the scripture."
"God hath given to the father a right or liberty, to alien his power over his children to any other."
"This lordship which Adam by command had over the whole world, and by right descending from him the patriarchs did enjoy, was as large and ample as the absolute dominion of any monarch."
"In a monarchy, the king must by necessity be above the laws."
"The first and strongest desire God planted in men, and wrought into the very principles of their nature, being that of self-preservation." - Chapter 87
"Children have a right of inheritance to their fathers' properties, not only because by it, it will be as long in the world as there are fathers." - Chapter 97
"Men being by a like obligation bound to preserve what they have begotten, as to preserve themselves." - Chapter 89
"Power founded on contract can descend only to him who has right by that contract." - Chapter 96
"Every man had a right to the creatures, by the same title Adam had, viz. by the right every one had to take care of, and provide for their subsistence." - Chapter 87
"Government being for the preservation of every man's right and property, by preserving him from the violence or injury of others, is for the good of the governed." - Chapter 92
"This blessing then of Isaac, whereon our author would build the dominion of the elder brother, signifies no more." - Chapter 113
"It being to no purpose for me to know there is such a paternal power, which I ought, and am disposed to obey, unless, where there are many pretenders, I also know the person that is rightfully invested and endowed with it." - Chapter 119
"The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one."
"Being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions."
"The state of war is a state of enmity and destruction."
"Every man has a right to punish the transgressors of that law to such a degree, as may hinder its violation."
"The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth."
"Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society."
"No man can, by compact, or his own consent, enslave himself to any one."
"The perfect condition of slavery is nothing else but the state of war continued between a lawful conqueror and a captive."
"The person sold was not under an absolute, arbitrary, despotical power."
"It is plain this was only to drudgery, not to slavery."
"Whether we consider natural reason... or revelation, it is very clear that God has given the earth to the children of men."
"God, who hath given the world to men in common, hath also given them reason to make use of it to the best advantage of life, and convenience."
"Though the earth, and all inferior creatures, be common to all men, yet every man has a property in his own person."
"He that is nourished by the acorns he picked up under an oak, or the apples he gathered from the trees in the wood, has certainly appropriated them to himself."
"By making an explicit consent of every commoner, necessary to any one's appropriating to himself any part of what is given in common, children or servants could not cut the meat."
"This law of reason makes the deer that Indian's who hath killed it; it is allowed to be his goods, who hath bestowed his labour upon it."
"God has given us all things richly... But how far has he given it us? To enjoy."
"Property in that too is acquired as the former. As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is his property."
"He that had as good left for his improvement, as was already taken up, needed not complain, ought not to meddle with what was already improved by another's labour."
"God gave the world to men in common; but since he gave it them for their benefit, it cannot be supposed he meant it should always remain common and uncultivated."
"The end of government being the preservation of all, as much as may be, even the guilty are to be spared, where it can prove no prejudice to the innocent."
"Absolute dominion, however placed, is so far from being one kind of civil society, that it is as inconsistent with it, as slavery is with property."
"The obligations of the law of nature cease not in society, but only in many cases are drawn closer, and have by human laws known penalties annexed to them."
"Prerogative is nothing but the power of doing public good without a rule."
"The use of force without authority, always puts him that uses it into a state of war, as the aggressor, and renders him liable to be treated accordingly."
"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."
"The supreme power cannot take from any man any part of his property without his own consent."
"No body doubts but an express consent, of any man entering into any society, makes him a perfect member of that society, a subject of that government."
"A man, as has been proved, cannot subject himself to the arbitrary power of another."
"It is the unjust use of force then, that puts a man into the state of war with another."
"The right then of conquest extends only to the lives of those who joined in the war, not to their estates."
"They made not the war, nor assisted in it. I could not forfeit their lives; they were not mine to forfeit."
"The destruction of a year's product or two is the utmost spoil that usually can be done."
"Over those that joined with him in the war, the conqueror, even in a just war, hath no right of dominion."
"Promises extorted by force, without right, can be thought consent, and how far they bind."
"The government of a conqueror has no obligation upon them."
"Every man is born with a double right: first, a right of freedom to his person."
"No government can have a right to obedience from a people who have not freely consented to it."
"He that uses force without right puts himself into a state of war."
"The end of government is the good of mankind."