“Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience”
– John Locke, Second Treatise on Government (1689)

To understand political power aright, and derive from it its original, we must consider what estate all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of Nature, without asking leave or depending upon the will of any other man.
– John Locke, Second Treatise on Government (1689)

The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.
– John Locke, Second Treatise on Government (1689)

Freedom of Men under Government is, to have a standing Rule to live by, common to every one of that Society, and made by the Legislative Power erected in it; a Liberty to follow my own Will in all things, where the Rule prescribes not; and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, Arbitrary Will of another Man: as Freedom of Nature is, to be under no other restraint but the Law of Nature.
– John Locke, Second Treatise on Government (1689)

The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings, capable of laws, where there is no law there is no freedom.
– John Locke, Second Treatise on Government (1689)

As usurpation is the exercise of power which another has a right to, so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which nobody can have a right to.
– John Locke, Second Treatise on Government (1689)

But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression.
– John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
– John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)

I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.
– John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)

It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.
– John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)

Religion, which should most distinguish us from the beasts, and ought most particularly elevate us, as rational creatures, above brutes, is that wherein men often appear most irrational, and more senseless than beasts.
– John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)