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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.

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
Possible
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Individual
Mode
Action
Application
Part
Benefit
Best
Benefits
Capacity
General
Duty

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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.
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Let us not, in the eagerness of our haste to educate, forget all the ends of education.
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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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Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.
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The execution of any thing considerable implies in the first place previous persevering meditation.
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In cases where every thing is understood, and measured, and reduced to rule, love is out of the question.
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There must be room for the imagination to exercise its powers we must conceive and apprehend a thousand things which we do not actually witness.
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Justice is the sum of all moral duty.
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The proper method for hastening the decay of error is by teaching every man to think for himself.
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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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The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.
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God himself has no right to be a tyrant.
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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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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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To conceive that compulsion and punishment are the proper means of reformation is the sentiment of a barbarian.
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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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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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If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book.
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