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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
Conceive
Compulsion
Sentiments
Proper
Punishment
Barbarian
Means
Barbarians
Mean
Reformation
Sentiment

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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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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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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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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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Study with desire is real activity without desire it is but the semblance and mockery of activity.
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Literature, taken in all its bearings, forms the grand line of demarcation between the human and the animal kingdoms.
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We cannot perform our tasks to the best of our power, unless we think well of our own capacity.
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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.
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Revolutions are the produce of passion, not of sober and tranquil reason.
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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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What can be more clear and sound in explanation, than the love of a parent to his child?
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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.
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God himself has no right to be a tyrant.
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Power is not happiness.
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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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But the watchful care of the parent is endless. The youth is never free from the danger of grating interference.
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Obey this may be right but beware of reverence.... Government is nothing but regulated force force is its appropriate claim upon your attention. It is the business of individuals to persuade the tendency of concentrated strength, is only to give consistency and permanence to an influence more compendious than persuasion.
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Justice is the sum of all moral duty.
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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.
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The lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of their riper years.
William Godwin