Where all is but dream, reasoning and arguments are of no use

“Where all is but dream, reasoning and arguments are of no use, truth and knowledge nothing.” — John Locke, the great philosopher of mind and understanding, who sought to uncover how man comes to know anything at all. These words, soft yet thunderous, speak not only of logic, but of the very foundation of reality itself. Locke reminds us that when a man lives in illusion — when the world around him becomes a mist of fantasy, falsehood, or delusion — then all his reasoning, all his arguments, all his proud claims of truth and knowledge are but echoes in a void. For truth cannot exist where there is no ground upon which it may stand.

To Locke, the mind was like a mirror reflecting the world, yet capable of distortion. He wrote in an age when men were awakening from centuries of superstition, seeking reason as their new dawn. But even he, the champion of rational thought, knew that reason is powerless when it floats unanchored in the sea of dreams. If all is dream, if perception itself is false or untethered, then the intellect becomes a blind god, waving its scepter in the dark. Thus Locke warns us: before we argue, before we reason, before we build our mighty towers of philosophy — we must first wake.

The ancients knew this too. Plato told of men chained in a cave, mistaking shadows for reality. They argued among themselves about which shadow was the tallest, which the truest — but their reasoning was useless, for they argued within the dream. Only when one man turned toward the light, leaving behind illusion, did he see truth. Locke’s words are a later echo of that same wisdom: a call not merely to think, but to awaken before we think; to ensure that our knowledge is not the fevered raving of a sleeper who mistakes the stars of his own mind for the heavens themselves.

Consider the tale of Galileo Galilei, who gazed at the night sky and refused to dream as others dreamed. The world of his time slept under the illusion that the Earth was still, that the heavens revolved around man. Yet Galileo, through the lens of his telescope, saw moons circling Jupiter, and the Earth itself moving among the stars. His reasoning broke through the dream of ages. He was condemned, mocked, silenced — for he had dared to wake a world comfortable in its illusion. But history remembers this: when truth shines, even faintly, the dream dissolves, and no chain of authority can bind the awakened mind.

To live in dream is not merely to sleep in ignorance — it is to choose comfort over clarity. How many live today as if in a waking dream? Surrounded by illusions of fame, wealth, and false wisdom, they debate endlessly over what is right, yet never ask if they see rightly. Their arguments, no matter how eloquent, are castles built upon clouds. For as Locke reminds us, truth and knowledge are nothing when they are unmoored from reality — when the heart prefers illusion to the labor of seeing clearly.

But let us not despair, for Locke’s words are not only a warning; they are a summons. He calls us to wakefulness — to pierce through the haze of false appearances and see things as they are. To awaken, one must learn to doubt wisely, to test each belief, to weigh evidence, and to remain humble before mystery. The awakened soul does not assume it knows; it seeks to know. It questions not to destroy, but to understand. And when truth is found, it becomes the most solid ground upon which man may stand.

The lesson, then, is this: beware the comfort of the dream. Seek clarity, even when it shatters your illusions. Do not argue to be right; reason to be real. Read not only to be informed, but to be transformed. In your thoughts, your faith, your choices — ask always, “Am I awake?” For truth is not found by those who sleep content in shadows. It comes to those who dare to open their eyes, even when the light burns.

So let this wisdom of Locke endure through time: where all is but dream, nothing can be known. But where one man awakens — even one — the light of truth and knowledge dawns anew upon the world. And it is from that awakening, not from argument or illusion, that civilization itself is born.