William Godwin Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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“If he who employs coercion against me could mould me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to punish me because his argument is strong; but he really punishes me because his argument is weak.”
-- William GodwinSource : William Godwin (1798). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness: By William Godwin”, p.337
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“He that loves reading has everything within his reach.”
-- William GodwinSource : William Godwin (1797). “The Enquirer: Reflections on Education, Manners and Literature, in a Series of Essays”, p.31
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“Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.”
-- William Godwin -
“Whenever government assumes to deliver us from the trouble of thinking for ourselves, the only consequences it produces are those of torpor and imbecility.”
-- William GodwinSource : William Godwin (1793). “An enquiry concerning political justice, and its influence on general virtue and happiness”, p.143
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“Above all we should not forget that government is an evil, a usurpation upon the private judgement and individual conscience of mankind.”
-- William GodwinSource : "An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice: And Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness".
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“As long as parents and teachers in general shall fall under the established rule, it is clear that politics and modes of government will educate and infect us all. They poison our minds, before we can resist, or so much as suspect their malignity. Like the barbarous directors of the Eastern seraglios, they deprive us of our vitality, and fit us for their despicable employment from the cradle.”
-- William GodwinSource : William Godwin (1798). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice: And Its Influence on Morals and Happiness”, p.49
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“Government will not fail to employ education, to strengthen its hands and perpetuate its institutions.”
-- William Godwin -
“The cause of justice is the cause of humanity. Its advocates should overflow with universal good will. We should love this cause, for it conduces to the general happiness of mankind.”
-- William GodwinSource : William Godwin (1793). “An enquiry concerning political justice, and its influence on general virtue and happiness”, p.417
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“As the true object of education is not to render the pupil the mere copy of his preceptor, it is rather to be rejoiced in, than lamented, that various reading should lead him into new trains of thinking.”
-- William Godwin -
“The great model of the affection of love in human beings is the sentiment which subsists between parents and children.”
-- William GodwinSource : William Godwin (1831). “Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions, and Discoveries: Interspersed with Some Particulars Respecting the Author”, p.274
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“The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.”
-- William Godwin -
“One of the prerogatives by which man is eminently distinguished from all other living beings inhabiting this globe of earth, consists in the gift of reason.”
-- William Godwin -
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“The most desirable mode of education, is that which is careful that all the acquisitions of the pupil shall be preceded and accompanied by desire . . . The boy, like the man, studies because he desires it. He proceeds upon a plan of is own invention, or by which, by adopting, he has made his own. Everything bespeaks independence and inequality.”
-- William Godwin -
“We cannot perform our tasks to the best of our power, unless we think well of our own capacity.”
-- William GodwinSource : William Godwin (1831). “Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions, and Discoveries: Interspersed with Some Particulars Respecting the Author”, p.345
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“My thoughts will be taken up with the future or the past, with what is to come or what has been. Of the present there is necessarily no image.”
-- William Godwin -
“It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn.”
-- William Godwin -
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“God himself has no right to be a tyrant.”
-- William GodwinSource : William Godwin (1890). “Godwin's "Political Justice.": A Reprint of the Essay on "Property," from the Original Edition”
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“Let us not, in the eagerness of our haste to educate, forget all the ends of education.”
-- William Godwin -
“The proper method for hastening the decay of error is by teaching every man to think for himself.”
-- William GodwinSource : William Godwin, Luke White (bookseller.) (1793). “An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice: And Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness”, p.375
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“It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn. The true object of juvenile education, is to provide, against the age of five and twenty, a mind well regulated, active, and prepared to learn. Whatever will inspire habits of industry and observation, will sufficiently answer this purpose.”
-- William Godwin -
“Study with desire is real activity; without desire it is but the semblance and mockery of activity.”
-- William Godwin -
“Duty is that mode of action on the part of the individual which constitutes the best possible application of his capacity to the general benefit.”
-- William GodwinSource : William Godwin (1798). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness: By William Godwin”, p.156
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“Hereditary wealth is in reality a premium paid to idleness.”
-- William Godwin -
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“Literature, taken in all its bearings, forms the grand line of demarcation between the human and the animal kingdoms.”
-- William Godwin -
“In a well-written book we are presented with the maturest reflections, or the happiest flights of a mind of uncommon excellence. It is impossible that we can be much accustomed to such companions without attaining some resemblance to them.”
-- William Godwin -
“He has no right to his life when his duty calls him to resign it. Other men are bound ... to deprive him of life or liberty, if that should appear in any case to be indispensably necessary to prevent a greater evil.”
-- William Godwin -
“There is no sphere in which a human being can be supposed to act where one mode of reasoning will not, in every given instance, be more reasonable than any other mode. That mode the being is bound by every principle of justice to pursue.”
-- William Godwin -
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“By right, as the word is employed in this subject, has always been understood discretion, that is, a full and complete power of either doing a thing or omitting it, without the person's becoming liable to animadversion or censure from another, that is, in other words, without his incurring any degree of turpitude or guilt. Now in this sense I affirm that man has no rights, no discretionary power whatever.”
-- William Godwin -
“The real or supposed rights of man are of two kinds, active and passive; the right in certain cases to do as we list; and the right we possess to the forbearance or assistance of other men. The first of these a just philosophy will probably induce us universally to explode.”
-- William Godwin
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