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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.

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
Depends
Upon
Science
Unaccompanied
Cannot
Apprehended
Truth
Properly
Mind
Stands
Whenever
Evidence

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The virtue of a human being is the application of his capacity to the general good.
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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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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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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.
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Books are the depositary of everything that is most honourable to man.
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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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Everything that is usually understood by the term co-operation is, in some degree, an evil.
William Godwin
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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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He that revels in a well-chosen library, has innumerable dishes, and all of admirable flavour.
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Power is not happiness. Security and peace are more to be desired than a name at which nations tremble.
William Godwin
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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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In cases where every thing is understood, and measured, and reduced to rule, love is out of the question.
William Godwin
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My mind was bursting with depression and anguish. I muttered imprecations and murmuring as I passed along. I was full of loathing and abhorrence of life, and all that life carries in its train.
William Godwin
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Our judgment will always suspect those weapons that can be used with equal prospect of success on both sides.
William Godwin
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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.
William Godwin
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Hereditary wealth is in reality a premium paid to idleness.
William Godwin
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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.
William Godwin
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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
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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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What can be more clear and sound in explanation, than the love of a parent to his child?
William Godwin