William Godwin Quotes
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Power is not happiness. Security and peace are more to be desired than a name at which nations tremble.
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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.
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Obey; this may be right; but beware of reverence.... Government is nothing but regulated force; force is its appropriate claim upon your attention. It is the business of individuals to persuade; the tendency of concentrated strength, is only to give consistency and permanence to an influence more compendious than persuasion.
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Our judgment will always suspect those weapons that can be used with equal prospect of success on both sides.
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Whenever truth stands in the mind unaccompanied by the evidence upon which it depends, it cannot properly be said to be apprehended at all.
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The proper method for hastening the decay of error is by teaching every man to think for himself.
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If there be such a thing as truth, it must infallibly be struck out by the collision of mind with mind.
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The virtue of a human being is the application of his capacity to the general good.
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Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.... An attempt to scrutinize men's thoughts and punish their opinions is of all kinds of despotism the most odious: yet this is peculiarly character of a period of revolution.... There is no period more at war with the existence of liberty.
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Of Belief Human mathematics, so to speak, like the length of life, are subject to the doctrine of chances.
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Books are the depositary of everything that is most honourable to man.
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Revolutions are the produce of passion, not of sober and tranquil reason.
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Above all we should not forget, that government is an evil, an usurpation upon the private judgment and individual conscience of mankind.
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The execution of any thing considerable implies in the first place previous persevering meditation.
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It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn.
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Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped power can stand against the artillery of opinion.
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But the watchful care of the parent is endless. The youth is never free from the danger of grating interference.
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Government will not fail to employ education, to strengthen its hands and perpetuate its institutions.
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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.
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If admiration were not generally deemed the exclusive property of the rich, and contempt the constant lackey of poverty, the love of gain would cease to be an universal problem.
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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.
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Power is not happiness.
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Literature, taken in all its bearings, forms the grand line of demarcation between the human and the animal kingdoms.
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The lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of their riper years.