Thomas Sydenham as “a man whom, in the acuteness of his intellect, in the steadiness of his judgement. Locke was described by the famous English physician Dr. Locke helped Quaker William Penn restore his good name when he was a political fugitive, as Penn had arranged a pardon for Locke when he had been a political fugitive. Mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton cherished his company. Some notable contemporaries thought highly of Locke. According to biographer Maurice Cranston, he had a “long face, large nose, full lips, and soft, melancholy eyes.” Although he had a love affair which, he said, “robbed me of the use of my reason,” he died a bachelor. There was little in Locke’s appearance to suggest greatness. He was distracted by asthma and other chronic ailments. His first major work wasn’t published until he was 57. He was a physician who long lacked traditional credentials and had just one patient. He had a brief experience with a failed diplomatic mission. When he set out to develop his ideas, he was an undistinguished Oxford scholar. It seems incredible that Locke, of all people, could have influenced individuals around the world. What he has not seen clearly, I despair of ever seeing.” The French philosopher Voltaire called Locke “the man of the greatest wisdom. Locke’s writings were part of Benjamin Franklin’s self-education, and John Adams believed that both girls and boys should learn about Locke. From Locke, James Madison drew his most fundamental principles of liberty and government. Locke helped inspire Thomas Paine’s radical ideas about revolution. Thomas Jefferson ranked Locke, along with Locke’s compatriot Algernon Sidney, as the most important thinkers on liberty. This, in turn, set an example which inspired people throughout Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Locke’s writings did much to inspire the libertarian ideals of the American Revolution. He acknowledged authorship only in his will. These views were most fully developed in Locke’s famous Second Treatise Concerning Civil Government, and they were so radical that he never dared sign his name to it. He insisted that when government violates individual rights, people may legitimately rebel. He favored representative government and a rule of law. He explained the principle of checks and balances to limit government power. He expressed the radical view that government is morally obliged to serve people, namely by protecting life, liberty, and property.
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