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

More quotes by William Godwin

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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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If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book.
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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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Study with desire is real activity without desire it is but the semblance and mockery of activity.
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Everything that is usually understood by the term co-operation is, in some degree, an evil.
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Perseverance is an active principle, and cannot continue to operate but under the influence of desire.
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He that revels in a well-chosen library, has innumerable dishes, and all of admirable flavour.
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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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It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn.
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Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.
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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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In cases where every thing is understood, and measured, and reduced to rule, love is out of the question.
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Of Belief Human mathematics, so to speak, like the length of life, are subject to the doctrine of chances.
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No maxim can be more pernicious than that which would teach us to consult the temper of the times, and to tell only so much as we imagine our contemporaries will be able to bear.
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Justice is the sum of all moral duty.
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To conceive that compulsion and punishment are the proper means of reformation is the sentiment of a barbarian.
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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
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Revolutions are the produce of passion, not of sober and tranquil reason.
William Godwin
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My thoughts will be taken up with the future or the past, with what is to come or what has been. Of the present there is necessarily no image.
William Godwin
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But the watchful care of the parent is endless. The youth is never free from the danger of grating interference.
William Godwin