Control a light turning on from multiple switches, but not off

Question

I want to do something that seems a bit more complex to myself. I want to have 4 switches in my garage that I can use to turn on the garage lights I'll be installing. (Switch on workbench, by the door, etc). Here's where I'm stumped. I want the lights to come on when ANY switch is on but only turn off if all of the switches are off. How would I accomplish this?

Answer 1

Here is a quick sketch of some light switches connected in parallel:

If any switch is on, the lights are on. If all the switches are off, the lights are off.

Querent has not responded to requests for clarification of his purpose, but it's not impossible to imagine a use case for this circuit. Suppose the garage is used by several parties, who don't always know when others are present and using the lamps. With a "multi-way" circuit, someone leaving the garage might turn off the lights, leaving other users in the dark.

With the parallel switches, each user must turn on a switch when entering the garage, even if the lights are already on. This insure that he will not be left in the dark when he is the last one there. On leaving, each user must turn off the switch that he turned on when entering. (If the lights go off when he does this, then he knows he was the last one out, not that it matters.)

For completeness, here is what the "multi-way" circuit looks like:

with two "3-way" switches and two "4-way" switches.

Now, following the comment by Harper, a future owner of the property might want to convert to the multi-way behavior instead. Querent could facilitate the conversion by using the switches required for the multi-way, but using only the SPST functionality of each switch, and wiring them in parallel. Like this:

This saves the future owner buying new switches, but must be carefully and thoroughly documented or else it will be worse than useless.