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

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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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What indeed is life, unless so far as it is enjoyed? It does not merit the name.
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What can be more clear and sound in explanation, than the love of a parent to his child?
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Justice is the sum of all moral duty.
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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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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.
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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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The diligent scholar is he that loves himself, and desires to have reason to applaud and love himself.
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Government will not fail to employ education, to strengthen its hands and perpetuate its institutions.
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God himself has no right to be a tyrant.
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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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The proper method for hastening the decay of error is by teaching every man to think for himself.
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There can be no passion, and by consequence no love, where there is not imagination.
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Obey this may be right but beware of reverence.... Government is nothing but regulated force force is its appropriate claim upon your attention. It is the business of individuals to persuade the tendency of concentrated strength, is only to give consistency and permanence to an influence more compendious than persuasion.
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Literature, taken in all its bearings, forms the grand line of demarcation between the human and the animal kingdoms.
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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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He that loves reading has everything within his reach.
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The virtue of a human being is the application of his capacity to the general good.
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The wise man is satisfied with nothing.
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The lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of their riper years.
William Godwin