The 5 Best Phrases Of John Locke

John Locke’s phrases invite us to reflect and discover great lessons that can be applied to our daily lives. Most of them are part of his works and will not leave us indifferent.

John Locke was an important British thinker who was born in 1632 and died in 1704. Although he specialized in medicine, he was noted for his writings and studies in political philosophy.

He was a man with a multidisciplinary vision. Although he is known for what has already been mentioned, it should also be noted that he was a professor, economist, theologian, diplomat and writer. But this is not all. Locke was one of the representatives of British empiricism.

In this article we will focus on the best phrases of John Locke that he has said or that have been collected from his writings. Phrases full of wisdom that are worth remembering.

Concern as a control mechanism

This is one of the first phrases of John Locke that we have considered important to have in the first place. Not only because of the meaning it contains, but because this teaching has been repeated today in an important way. What we did not know is that there was already someone who tried to transmit it in a distant time for us.

Everything that worries us controls us for the simple reason that worries are a series of thoughts that go round and round with no possible way out. Beliefs that we feed with fears, doubts and expectations that if we don’t stop, little by little they get bigger.

When we do not let go of what worries us, anxiety arises. However, a Chinese proverb gives us the solution to avoid being controlled by worries:

The important work of parents

The second of John Locke’s phrases that we have collected is addressed to parents, who have an important job on their hands. However, this phrase is a criticism of an event that occurs almost every day. Parents who lament because their children are rebellious, because they have “gone astray”, because they have not integrated the values ​​that they believed to have transmitted to them …

Today, for example, many parents often complain about how addicted their children are to mobile phones or computers. However, these complaints denote a lack of responsibility on the part of all those parents who use video games, the tablet or any other technological object so that the little ones are calm.

It is true that time runs very fast, but you have to know how to prioritize what is important. Sometimes our responsibilities can make parenting overwhelm us. However, we cannot forget that children are going to grow and interact with other people, that is, they are going to build relationships and it is the parents’ responsibility to educate them well.

If they are educated in “take, play and so you entertain yourself for a while” or in “now I have no time”, children can become addicted to a screen, where is that quality time that is everything? How can parents serve as an example to their children, if tomorrow they become addicted to their cell phones? They have guided you through this process. They poison the source.

Happiness and mind

The third of John Locke’s phrases tells us about that happiness that every human being yearns for, but that most look for in the least suitable places. Perhaps, because as he rightly says, we consider that happiness depends on circumstances.

If we get kicked out of work, we can’t be happy; at the moment when we cannot find a partner, we cannot be happy; if we don’t have children, we can’t be happy; if we do not have enough money, we cannot be happy … The big question is: who has affirmed all this?

The beliefs that we harbor in our mind condition us so much that we have given enormous importance to everything that happens on the outside, without prioritizing our interior. With new perspectives, with different ways of looking at things, one can realize that, in reality, there is no reason to be unhappy.

The desire to be like everyone else

Undoubtedly, this fourth of John Locke’s phrases contains a great criticism that was said at the time, but it is totally applicable today. All people are different, however, there is a tendency to want to be like others, lose authenticity and thus be approved by others.

That desire for approval, to belong to a group, causes us to lose our own identity. Everything that makes us different makes us ashamed, because we consider the judgments of others and criticism as true.

Instead of feeling proud when someone points out our difference of thoughts or ways of seeing things, when they judge our customs, we are ashamed of all this. As the previous sentence said, we believe that happiness depends on circumstances, on the outside. For this reason, we transform ourselves into chameleons sacrificing our own essence.

The value of effort

Who wants to be rich? If we were in a room, probably many hands would go up. However, wealth can come from very different sources. This last of John Locke’s phrases points out, above all, that wealth is the product of work, effort and perseverance.

If we do not persist, the first error that appears we will cower and want to go back, losing everything we have achieved so far. If we don’t make an effort, what we do won’t pay off. It is necessary to work to achieve what we want. Doing so will make us rich.

We can be rich in money, in health, in knowledge … Rich for doing what we like, because our life wastes well-being … Rich for having friends or a healthy family. We can be rich in many ways, but in each of them there is effort and work, perseverance and a certain attitude.

These 5 phrases by John Locke allow us to realize that for many years that pass, what great thinkers try to make us open our eyes remains the same. Isn’t it about time that we take another step? At what point will these phrases stop being advice to become a way of life?

Images courtesy of Michel Cheval