Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"Let any one examine his own Thoughts, and throughly search into his Understanding, and then let him tell me, Whether all the original Ideas he has there, are any other than of the Objects of his Senses, or of the Operations of his Mind, considered as Objects of his Reflection: and how great a ma...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"I see no Reason therefore to believe, that the Soul thinks before the Senses have furnished it with Ideas to think on; and as those are increased, and retained; so it comes, by Exercise, to improve its Faculty of thinking in the several parts of it, as well as afterwards, by compounding those Id...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"Nor let any one think these too narrow bounds for the capacious Mind of Man to expatiate in, which takes its flight farther than the Stars, and cannot be confined by the limits of the World; that extends its thoughts often even beyond the utmost expansion of Matter, and makes excursions into tha...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"Nor will it be so strange, to think these few simple Ideas sufficient to employ the quickest Thought, or largest Capacity; and to furnish the Materials of all that various Knowledge, and more various Phansies and Opinions of all Mankind, if we consider how many Words may be made out of the vario...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"For besides the vast Number of different Figures, that do really exist in the coherent masses of Matter, the Stock, that the Mind has in its Power, by varying the Idea of Space; and thereby making still new Compositions, by repeating its own Ideas, and joining them as it pleases, is perfectly in...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"It is impossible that Men should ever truly seek, or certainly discover the Agreement or Disagreement of Ideas themselves, whilst their Thoughts flutter about, or stick only in Sounds of doubtful and uncertain significations Mathematicians abstracting their Thoughts from Names, and accustoming t...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"Whereby the increase brought into the Stock of real Knowledge has been very little, in proportion to the Schools, Disputes, and Writings, the World has been fill'd with; whilst Men, being lost in the great Wood of Words, knew not whereabout they were, how far their Discoveries were advanced, or ...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

" But 'tis chiefly by the finding out those Ideas that shew the connexion of distant ones, that our stock of Knowledge is increased, and that useful Arts and Sciences are advanced."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"Syllogism, at best, is but the Art of fencing with the little Knowledge we have, without making any Addition to it: And if a Man should employ his Reason all this way, he will not doe much otherwise than he, who having got some Iron out of the Bowels of the Earth, should have it beaten up all in...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"Had the King of Spain imploy'd the Hands of his People, and his Spanish Iron so, he had brought to Light but little of that Treasure, that lay so long hid in the dark Entrails of America. And I am apt to think, that he who shall employ all the force of his Reason only ...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)