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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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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
Men
Stand
Wise
Usurped
Liberty
Artillery
Opinion
Operation
Wisdom
Follows
Free
Operations
Power
Civil
Make
Consequence
More quotes by William Godwin
Self-respect to be nourished in the mind of the pupil, is one of the most valuable results of a well conducted education.
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
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
Our judgment will always suspect those weapons that can be used with equal prospect of success on both sides.
William Godwin
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.
William Godwin
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.
William Godwin
Of Belief Human mathematics, so to speak, like the length of life, are subject to the doctrine of chances.
William Godwin
If there be such a thing as truth, it must infallibly be struck out by the collision of mind with mind.
William Godwin
Power is not happiness.
William Godwin
Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.
William Godwin
Hereditary wealth is in reality a premium paid to idleness.
William Godwin
The great model of the affection of love in human beings is the sentiment which subsists between parents and children.
William Godwin
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
Government can have no more than two legitimate purposes - the suppression of injustice against individuals within the community, and the common defense against external invasion.
William Godwin
To conceive that compulsion and punishment are the proper means of reformation is the sentiment of a barbarian.
William Godwin
The execution of any thing considerable implies in the first place previous persevering meditation.
William Godwin
The proper method for hastening the decay of error, is not, by brute force, or by regulation which is one of the classes of force, to endeavour to reduce men to intellectual uniformity but on the contrary by teaching every man to think for himself.
William Godwin
He that revels in a well-chosen library, has innumerable dishes, and all of admirable flavour.
William Godwin
In cases where every thing is understood, and measured, and reduced to rule, love is out of the question.
William Godwin
He that loves reading has everything within his reach.
William Godwin