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Whenever government assumes to deliver us from the trouble of thinking for ourselves, the only consequences it produces are those of torpor and imbecility.

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
Consequences
Assuming
Whenever
Consequence
Torpor
Produce
Imbecility
Trouble
Assumes
Government
Deliver
Thinking
Produces

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Revolutions are the produce of passion, not of sober and tranquil reason.
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God himself has no right to be a tyrant.
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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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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.
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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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If there be such a thing as truth, it must infallibly be struck out by the collision of mind with mind.
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All education is despotism. It is perhaps impossible for the young to be conducted without introducing in many cases the tyranny implicit in obedience. Go there do that read write rise lie down - will perhaps forever be the language addressed to youth by age.
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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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Everything that is usually understood by the term co-operation is, in some degree, an evil.
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Power is not happiness.
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He that loves reading has everything within his reach.
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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.
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Perseverance is an active principle, and cannot continue to operate but under the influence of desire.
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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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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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Hereditary wealth is in reality a premium paid to idleness.
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Duty is that mode of action on the part of the individual which constitutes the best possible application of his capacity to the general benefit.
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He that revels in a well-chosen library, has innumerable dishes, and all of admirable flavour.
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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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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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