"All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions"
About this Quote
Locke’s ellipsis does a lot of quiet work: “All mankind...” is a sweeping start that sounds like scripture, then lands as a legal premise. The line isn’t trying to flatter humanity; it’s trying to corner power. If everyone is “equal and independent,” then authority can’t be treated as a natural inheritance. Kings, lords, and even majorities have to justify themselves against a baseline where no one is born with a warrant to dominate.
The phrasing is deliberately plain, almost accountant-like: “life, health, liberty or possessions.” That shopping list matters. Locke is building a moral firewall around the person and the property that sustains the person. “Possessions” isn’t a stray add-on; it’s the hinge between bodily security and the emerging market society of 17th-century England. Protect property and you protect a citizen who can act without begging permission; undermine property and you create dependence, the breeding ground of coercion.
Subtext: this is a theory of restraint disguised as common sense. “No one ought to harm another” reads like basic decency, but it’s really a radical limit on what governments can do. Locke’s target isn’t just interpersonal violence; it’s the legalized harm of arbitrary rule - taxes, seizures, conscription, punishment - when they aren’t grounded in consent and law. Written in the shadow of civil war, regicide, and the Glorious Revolution, the line is a philosophical receipt for political legitimacy: power is acceptable only as the guardian of rights it did not create.
The phrasing is deliberately plain, almost accountant-like: “life, health, liberty or possessions.” That shopping list matters. Locke is building a moral firewall around the person and the property that sustains the person. “Possessions” isn’t a stray add-on; it’s the hinge between bodily security and the emerging market society of 17th-century England. Protect property and you protect a citizen who can act without begging permission; undermine property and you create dependence, the breeding ground of coercion.
Subtext: this is a theory of restraint disguised as common sense. “No one ought to harm another” reads like basic decency, but it’s really a radical limit on what governments can do. Locke’s target isn’t just interpersonal violence; it’s the legalized harm of arbitrary rule - taxes, seizures, conscription, punishment - when they aren’t grounded in consent and law. Written in the shadow of civil war, regicide, and the Glorious Revolution, the line is a philosophical receipt for political legitimacy: power is acceptable only as the guardian of rights it did not create.
Quote Details
| Topic | Human Rights |
|---|---|
| Source | John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1690), 'Of the State of Nature' — contains: '...being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.' |
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