Quotation by John Locke

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An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1690)An Essay Concerning Human Understanding ed. P. Nidditch, Oxford, Clarendon Press (1975)An Essay Concerning Human Understanding ed. Peter H. Nidditch, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1979)Essay Concerning Human Understanding, book II, ch. i, sect. 19; ed. from the 4th edition by Peter H. Nidditch Oxford University Press (1975)Essay Concerning Human Understanding vol. II Dover (1959).

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politics (24) democracy (14) civil disobedience (13) slavery (9) law (8) justice (8) leadership (6) power (6) freedom (5) reform (5)

Whenever the legislators endeavour 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 farther obedience, and are left to the common refuge, which God hath provided for all men, against force and violence.

John Locke

John Locke (1632–1704), British philosopher. Two Treatises of Government, bk. 2, ch. 19, sect. 221, p. 412, ed. Peter Laslett, Cambridge University Press (1988).

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