Quote

Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.

William Godwin

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Perfectibility
Unequivocal
Characteristics
Species
Human
Humans

More quotes by William Godwin

Image
The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.
William Godwin
Image
Of Belief Human mathematics, so to speak, like the length of life, are subject to the doctrine of chances.
William Godwin
Image
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.
William Godwin
Image
We are so curiously made that one atom put in the wrong place in our original structure will often make us unhappy for life.
William Godwin
Image
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.
William Godwin
Image
Man is the only creature we know, that, when the term of his natural life is ended, leaves the memory of himself behind him.
William Godwin
Image
The lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of their riper years.
William Godwin
Image
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.
William Godwin
Image
Everything that is usually understood by the term co-operation is, in some degree, an evil.
William Godwin
Image
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.
William Godwin
Image
A celebrated north country apostle, who, after Calvin had damned ninety-nine in a hundred of mankind, had contrived a scheme for damning ninety-nine in a hundred of the followers of Calvin.
William Godwin
Image
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.
William Godwin
Image
Power is not happiness.
William Godwin
Image
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.
William Godwin
Image
The great model of the affection of love in human beings is the sentiment which subsists between parents and children.
William Godwin
Image
The diligent scholar is he that loves himself, and desires to have reason to applaud and love himself.
William Godwin
Image
He that revels in a well-chosen library, has innumerable dishes, and all of admirable flavour.
William Godwin
Image
Books are the depositary of everything that is most honourable to man.
William Godwin
Image
Government can have no more than two legitimate purposes - the suppression of injustice against individuals within the community, and the common defense against external invasion.
William Godwin
Image
It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn. The true object of juvenile education, is to provide, against the age of five and twenty, a mind well regulated, active, and prepared to learn. Whatever will inspire habits of industry and observation, will sufficiently answer this purpose.
William Godwin