Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"The Understanding, like the Eye, whilst it makes us see, and perceive all other Things, takes no notice of itself: And it requires Art and Pains to set it at a distance and make it its own Object."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"The Candle that is set up in us, shines bright enough for all our Purposes."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

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

"It might be very well expected, that these Principles should be perfectly known to Naturals; which being stamped immediately on the Soul (as these Men suppose) can have no dependence on the Constitutions, or Organs of the Body, the only confessed difference between them and others."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

Native beams of light should shine out in their "full Lustre" in children, idiots, and savages.

— 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)