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Perseverance is an active principle, and cannot continue to operate but under the influence of desire.

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
Perseverance
Principle
Active
Continue
Influence
Principles
Desire
Operate
Cannot
Encouraging

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The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.
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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.
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A celebrated north country apostle, who, after Calvin had damned ninety-nine in a hundred of mankind, had contrived a scheme for damning ninety-nine in a hundred of the followers of Calvin.
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Man is the only creature we know, that, when the term of his natural life is ended, leaves the memory of himself behind him.
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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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If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book.
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Books gratify and excite our curiosity in innumerable ways.
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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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Revolutions are the produce of passion, not of sober and tranquil reason.
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Learning is the ally, not the adversary of genius... he who reads in a proper spirit, can scarcely read too much.
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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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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.
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In cases where every thing is understood, and measured, and reduced to rule, love is out of the question.
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Government will not fail to employ education, to strengthen its hands and perpetuate its institutions.
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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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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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There can be no passion, and by consequence no love, where there is not imagination.
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The first duty of man is to take none of the principles of conduct upon trust to do nothing without a clear and individual conviction that it is right to be done.
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The virtue of a human being is the application of his capacity to the general good.
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The diligent scholar is he that loves himself, and desires to have reason to applaud and love himself.
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