Quote

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.

William Godwin

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Every
Spheres
Men
Flow
Atheism
Infringed
Expect
Neighbours
Shall
Discretion
Nature
Neighbour
Certain
Sphere
Right
Flows

More quotes by William Godwin

Image
Power is not happiness. Security and peace are more to be desired than a name at which nations tremble.
William Godwin
Image
The wise man is satisfied with nothing.
William Godwin
Image
There can be no passion, and by consequence no love, where there is not imagination.
William Godwin
Image
It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn.
William Godwin
Image
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
Image
The great model of the affection of love in human beings is the sentiment which subsists between parents and children.
William Godwin
Image
The real or supposed rights of man are of two kinds, active and passive the right in certain cases to do as we list and the right we possess to the forbearance or assistance of other men. The first of these a just philosophy will probably induce us universally to explode.
William Godwin
Image
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.
William Godwin
Image
The diligent scholar is he that loves himself, and desires to have reason to applaud and love himself.
William Godwin
Image
Study with desire is real activity without desire it is but the semblance and mockery of activity.
William Godwin
Image
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
Image
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.
William Godwin
Image
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
Image
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
Image
One of the prerogatives by which man is eminently distinguished from all other living beings inhabiting this globe of earth, consists in the gift of reason.
William Godwin
Image
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
Image
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
Image
What can be more clear and sound in explanation, than the love of a parent to his child?
William Godwin
Image
In cases where every thing is understood, and measured, and reduced to rule, love is out of the question.
William Godwin
Image
But the watchful care of the parent is endless. The youth is never free from the danger of grating interference.
William Godwin