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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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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
Happiness
Peace
Power
Men
Tremble
Desired
Security
Name
Nations

More quotes by William Godwin

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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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Books gratify and excite our curiosity in innumerable ways.
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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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What indeed is life, unless so far as it is enjoyed? It does not merit the name.
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Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.
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Everything that is usually understood by the term co-operation is, in some degree, an evil.
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Self-respect to be nourished in the mind of the pupil, is one of the most valuable results of a well conducted education.
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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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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.
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The subtleties of mathematics defecate the grossness of our apprehension, and supply the elements of a sounder and severer logic.
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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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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.
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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.
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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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Power is not happiness.
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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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.
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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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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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Justice is the sum of all moral duty.
William Godwin