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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.

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
Given
Bounds
Human
Instance
Humans
Pursue
Sphere
Every
Principle
Mode
Supposed
Spheres
Atheism
Reasoning
Principles
Bound
Justice
Reasonable

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Justice is the sum of all moral duty.
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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 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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To conceive that compulsion and punishment are the proper means of reformation is the sentiment of a barbarian.
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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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Of Belief Human mathematics, so to speak, like the length of life, are subject to the doctrine of chances.
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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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We are so curiously made that one atom put in the wrong place in our original structure will often make us unhappy for life.
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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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Man is the only creature we know, that, when the term of his natural life is ended, leaves the memory of himself behind him.
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The lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of their riper years.
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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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The virtue of a human being is the application of his capacity to the general good.
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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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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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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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My mind was bursting with depression and anguish. I muttered imprecations and murmuring as I passed along. I was full of loathing and abhorrence of life, and all that life carries in its train.
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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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Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.
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