Quote

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 Godwin

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William Godwin
Age: 80 †
Born: 1756
Born: March 3
Died: 1836
Died: April 7
Journalist
Novelist
Philosopher
Political Philosopher
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Wisbech
Cambridgeshire
Argument
Weak
Employs
Doubt
Punishes
Purpose
Pretends
Strong
Mould
Really
Coercion
Would
Punish
Purposes

More quotes by William Godwin

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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 Godwin
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Perseverance is an active principle, and cannot continue to operate but under the influence of desire.
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Let us not, in the eagerness of our haste to educate, forget all the ends of education.
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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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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
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Power is not happiness.
William Godwin
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It is absurd to expect the inclinations and wishes of two human beings to coincide, through any long period of time. To oblige them to act and live together is to subject them to some inevitable potion of thwarting, bickering, and unhappiness.
William Godwin
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Revolutions are the produce of passion, not of sober and tranquil reason.
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Invisible things are the only realities invisible things alone are the things that shall remain.
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What can be more clear and sound in explanation, than the love of a parent to his child?
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The great model of the affection of love in human beings is the sentiment which subsists between parents and children.
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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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Every man has a certain sphere of discretion which he has a right to expect shall not be infringed by his neighbours. This right flows from the very nature of man.
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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.
William Godwin
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The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.
William Godwin
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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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What indeed is life, unless so far as it is enjoyed? It does not merit the name.
William Godwin
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Study with desire is real activity without desire it is but the semblance and mockery of activity.
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We cannot perform our tasks to the best of our power, unless we think well of our own capacity.
William Godwin
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We are so curiously made that one atom put in the wrong place in our original structure will often make us unhappy for life.
William Godwin