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Thus parents, by humouring and cockering them when little, corrupt the principles of nature in their children, and wonder afterwards to taste the bitter waters, when they themselves have poison'd the fountain.

— John Locke Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)

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More quotes by John Locke

There cannot any one moral Rule be propos'd, whereof a Man may not justly demand a Reason.

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)

Freedom of Nature is, to be under no other restraint but the Law of Nature.

Two Treatises of Government (1689)

To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues.

It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)

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Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Locke (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.