History
of Ideas/Prof. B.
KEY QUOTES FROM LOCKE
(several of you expressed difficulty getting through Locke’s prose;
below is not a substitute for reading The Second Treatise, but isolated
quotes that will help you master the major points)
1 ...it is impossible that the rulers now
on earth should make any benefit, or derive any...authority from...Adam's
private dominion and paternal jurisdiction.
4 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...as they
see fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or
depending upon the will of any other man.
6 The state of nature has a law of nature to
govern it, which obliges everyone: and reason, which is that law, teaches all
mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one
ought to harm another in his life, liberty, or possessions....
7 ...the execution of the law of nature
is...put into every man's hands, whereby every one has a right to punish the
transgressors of that law to such a degree, as may hinder its violation....
13 I easily grant that civil government is the
proper remedy for the inconveniences of the state of nature, which must
certainly be great, where men may be judges in their own case....
19 Men living together according to reason,
without a common superior on earth, with authority to judge between them, is
properly the state of nature.
21 To avoid this state of war (...wherein
every least difference is apt to end, where there is no authority to decide
between contenders) is one great reason of men's putting themselves into
society, and quitting the state of nature....
27 Though the earth, and all inferior
creatures, be common to all men, yet every man has a property in his own
person: this no body has any right to but himself. The labour of his body, and the work of his
hands, we may say, are properly his.
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.
31 As much as any one can make use of to any
advantage of life before it spoils, so much he may by his labour fix a property
in: whatever is beyond this, is more than his share, and belongs to
others. Nothing was made by God for man
to spoil or destroy.
32 As much land as a man tills, plants,
improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is his property. He by his labour does, as it were, inclose it
from the common.
33 Nor was this appropriation of any parcel of
land, by improving it, any prejudice to any other man, since there was still
enough, and as good left....
34 God gave the world...to the use of the
industrious and rational....
40 ...if we will rightly estimate things as
they come to our use, and cast up the several expenses about them, what in them
is purely owning to nature, and what to labour, we shall find, that in most of
them ninety-nine hundredths are wholly to be put on the account of labor.
50 ...it is plain, that men have agreed to a
disproportionate and unequal possession of the earth, they having, by a tacit
and voluntary consent, found out a way how a man may fairly possess more land
than he himself can use the product of, by receiving in exchange for the
overplus gold and silver, which may be hoarded up without injury to any one;
these metals not spoiling or decaying in the hands of the possessor.
55 Children, I confess, are not born in this
full state of equality, though they are born to it.
73 But if they will enjoy the inheritance of
their ancestors, they must take it on the same terms their ancestors had it,
and submit to all the conditions annexed to such a possession.
89 Where-ever therefore any number of men are
so united into one society, as to quit every one his executive power of the law
of nature, and to resign it to the public, there and only there only is a political
or civil society.
96 ...it is necessary the body should move
that way whither the greater force carries it, which is the consent of the
majority....
123 If a man in the state of nature be so
free...why will he part with his freedom? ...To which it is obvious to answer,
that though in the state of nature he hath such a right, yet the enjoyment of
it is very uncertain, and constantly exposed to the invasion of others.... This
makes him willing...to join in society with others, who are already united, or
have a mind to unite, for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties and
estates, which I call by the general name, property.
131 And so whoever has the legislative or
supreme power of any common-wealth, is bound to govern by established standing
laws, promulgated and known to the people, and not by extemporary decrees; by
indifferent and upright judges, who are able to decide controversies by those
laws; and to employ the force of the community at home, only in the execution
of such laws, or abroad to prevent or redress foreign injuries, and secure the
community from inroads and invasion. And
all this to be directed to no other end, but the peace, safety, and public good
of the people.
199 ...the exercise of power beyond right [is
when]...the governor, however intitled, makes not the law, but his will, the
rule; and his commands and actions are not directed to the preservation of the
properties of his people, but the satisfaction of his own ambition, revenge,
covetousness, or any other irregular passion.
207 ...where the injured party may be relieved,
and his damages repaired by appeal to law, there can be no pretence for force,
which is only to be used where a man is intercepted from appealing to the
law....
208 ...[it is] impossible for one, or a few
oppressed men to disturb the government, where the body of the people do not
think themselves concerned on it, as for a raving mad-man, or heady mal-content
to overturn a well-settled state; the people being as little apt to follow the
one, as the other.
212 When any one, or more, shall take upon them
to make laws, whom the people have not appointed so to do, they make laws
without authority, which the people are not therefore bound to obey....
219 There is one way more whereby such a
government may be dissolved, and that is, when he who has the supreme executive
power, neglects and abandons that charge, so that the laws already made can no
longer be put into execution. ...When there is no longer the administration of
justice, for the securing of men's rights, nor any remaining power within the
community to direct the force, or provide for the necessities of the public,
there certainly is no government left....
220 ...men can never be secure from tyranny, if
there be no means to escape it till they are perfectly under it: and therefore
it is, that they have not only a right to get out of it, but to prevent it.
225 ...revolutions happen not upon every little
mismanagement in public affairs. Great
mistakes in the ruling part, many wrong and inconvenient laws, and all the
slips of human frailty, will be born by the people without mutiny or
murmur. But if a long train of abuses,
prevarications and artifices, all tending the same way, make the design visible
to the people...it is not to be wondered, that they should then rouse
themselves....
230 The examples of particular injustice, or
oppression of here and there an unfortunate man, moves them not. But if they universally have a persuasion,
grounded upon manifest evidence, that designs are carrying on against their
liberties...who is to be blamed for it? ...But whether the mischief hath
oftener begun in the people’s wantoness, and a desire to cast off the lawful
authority of their rulers, or in the rulers insolence...I leave it to impartial
history to determine. This I am sure,
whoever, either ruler or subject, by force goes about to invade the rights of
either prince or people, and lays the foundation for overturning the
constitution and frame of any just government, is highly guilty of the greatest
crime, I think, a man is capable of, being to answer for all those mischiefs of
blood, rapine, and desolation, which the breaking to pieces of governments
bring on a country. And he who does it,
is justly to be esteemed the common enemy and pest of mankind, and is to be
treated accordingly.