Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"It is an established Opinion amongst some Men, That there are in the Understanding certain innate principles; some primary Notions, [koinai ennoiai], Characters, as it were stamped upon the Mind of Man; which the Soul receives in its very first Being; and brings into the World with...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"We may as well think the use of Reason necessary to make our Eyes discover visible Objects, as that there should be need of Reason, of the Exercise thereof, to make the Understanding see, what is Originally engraven in it"

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"This would be, to make Nature take Pains to no Purpose; Or, at least, to write very ill; since its Characters could not be read by those Eyes, which saw other things very well: and those are very ill supposed the clearest parts of Truth, and the Foundations of all our Knowledge."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"But there is this farther Argument in it against their being innate: That these Characters, if they were native and original Impressions, should appear fairest and clearest in those Persons, in whom yet we find no Footsteps of them."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"For Children, Ideots, Savages, and illiterate People, being of all others the least corrupted by Custom, or borrowed Opinions; Learning, and Education, having not cast their Native thoughts into new Moulds; nor by super-inducing foreign and studied Doctrines, confounded those fair Characters Nat...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

Natural "Characters engraven on the Mind" must needs be visible by themselves by their own light

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"Hence naturally flows the great variety of Opinions, concerning Moral Rules, which are to be found amongst Men, according to the different sorts of Happiness, they have a Prospect of, or propose to themselves: Which could not be, if practical Principles were innate, and imprinted in our Minds im...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"To which, I answer, That I doubt not, but without being written on their Hearts, many Men, may, by the same way that they come to Knowledge of other things, come to assent to several Moral Rules, and be convinced of their Obligation."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"That the innate Principles of Morality, may, by Education, and Custom, and the general Opinion of those amongst whom we converse, be darkned, and at last quite worn out of the Minds of Men."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

The ideas Man has of God are not "Marks of Himself, engraven in their minds by his own finger."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)