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To conceive that compulsion and punishment are the proper means of reformation is the sentiment of a barbarian.

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
Sentiments
Proper
Punishment
Barbarian
Means
Barbarians
Mean
Reformation
Sentiment
Conceive
Compulsion

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The cause of justice is the cause of humanity. Its advocates should overflow with universal good will. We should love this cause, for it conduces to the general happiness of mankind.
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Above all we should not forget, that government is an evil, an usurpation upon the private judgment and individual conscience of mankind.
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The subtleties of mathematics defecate the grossness of our apprehension, and supply the elements of a sounder and severer logic.
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He has no right to his life when his duty calls him to resign it. Other men are bound ... to deprive him of life or liberty, if that should appear in any case to be indispensably necessary to prevent a greater evil.
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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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Government will not fail to employ education, to strengthen its hands and perpetuate its institutions.
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The wise man is satisfied with nothing.
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He that revels in a well-chosen library, has innumerable dishes, and all of admirable flavour.
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God himself has no right to be a tyrant.
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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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Books are the depositary of everything that is most honourable to man.
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The virtue of a human being is the application of his capacity to the general good.
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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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All education is despotism. It is perhaps impossible for the young to be conducted without introducing in many cases the tyranny implicit in obedience. Go there do that read write rise lie down - will perhaps forever be the language addressed to youth by age.
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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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The proper method for hastening the decay of error, is not, by brute force, or by regulation which is one of the classes of force, to endeavour to reduce men to intellectual uniformity but on the contrary by teaching every man to think for himself.
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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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Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.
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The lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of their riper years.
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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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