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God himself has no right to be a tyrant.

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
Tyrant
Tyrants
Religion
Right

More quotes by William Godwin

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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.
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Hereditary wealth is in reality a premium paid to idleness.
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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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Our judgment will always suspect those weapons that can be used with equal prospect of success on both sides.
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There can be no passion, and by consequence no love, where there is not imagination.
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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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Books are the depositary of everything that is most honourable to man.
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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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The first duty of man is to take none of the principles of conduct upon trust to do nothing without a clear and individual conviction that it is right to be done.
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In a well-written book we are presented with the maturest reflections, or the happiest flights of a mind of uncommon excellence. It is impossible that we can be much accustomed to such companions without attaining some resemblance to them.
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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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Everything that is usually understood by the term co-operation is, in some degree, an evil.
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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.
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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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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.
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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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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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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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Books gratify and excite our curiosity in innumerable ways.
William Godwin