Quote

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

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
Take
Principles
Done
Clear
Right
Upon
Men
Individual
Conduct
Firsts
Conviction
Without
None
Nothing
Duty
First
Trust

More quotes by 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
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.
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
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.
William Godwin
Image
Study with desire is real activity without desire it is but the semblance and mockery of activity.
William Godwin
Image
Literature, taken in all its bearings, forms the grand line of demarcation between the human and the animal kingdoms.
William Godwin
Image
The wise man is satisfied with nothing.
William Godwin
Image
Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.
William Godwin
Image
He that revels in a well-chosen library, has innumerable dishes, and all of admirable flavour.
William Godwin
Image
There can be no passion, and by consequence no love, where there is not imagination.
William Godwin
Image
The diligent scholar is he that loves himself, and desires to have reason to applaud and love himself.
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
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
The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.
William Godwin
Image
The lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of their riper years.
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
Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.
William Godwin
Image
What can be more clear and sound in explanation, than the love of a parent to his child?
William Godwin
Image
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
Image
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.
William Godwin