Intellectual Revolutions – Enlightenment Political Philosophers
Political Philosopher
John
Locke
Key idea: individual rights
Baron de
Montesquieu
Key idea: branches of
government
Voltaire
Key idea: tolerance
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau
Key idea: freedom and the
“general will” of the people
Mary
Wollstonecraft
Key idea: women’s rights
Main Ideas of Some Quotes In Own Words
How Do These Ideas Show An “Intellectual Revolution”?
Enlightenment Political Philosopher Quotes
John Locke (1632 - 1704)
All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.
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 law, where there is no law,
there is no freedom.
Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.
Government has no other end, but the preservation of property.
Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.
To love our neighbor as ourselves is such a truth for regulating human society, that by that alone one might determine all the cases in social morality.
The dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than the prospect of good.
Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)
The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.
To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.
Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.
In order to have this liberty, it is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another. When the legislative and executive powers
are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty.
Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments; and even in these it is not always found. It is there only when there is no abuse of power: but
constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go. To prevent this abuse, it is
necessary, from the very nature of things, that power should be a check to power.
Voltaire (1694-1778)
Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare the truth thou hast, that all may share; Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.
It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of
nature.
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. Many a one believes himself the master of others, and yet he is a greater slave than they. No man has any
natural authority over his fellow men.
Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers.
Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.
No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.
We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the
gift of education.
Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
The being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason.
Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.
Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's scepter, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.
If women be educated for dependence; that is, to act according to the will of another fallible being, and submit, right or wrong, to power, where are we to stop?
Women ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government.
The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger.