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

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Power is not happiness. Security and peace are more to be desired than a name at which nations tremble.
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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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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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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 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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Hereditary wealth is in reality a premium paid to idleness.
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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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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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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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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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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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Books are the depositary of everything that is most honourable to man.
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The real or supposed rights of man are of two kinds, active and passive the right in certain cases to do as we list and the right we possess to the forbearance or assistance of other men. The first of these a just philosophy will probably induce us universally to explode.
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The great model of the affection of love in human beings is the sentiment which subsists between parents and children.
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Perseverance is an active principle, and cannot continue to operate but under the influence of desire.
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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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What indeed is life, unless so far as it is enjoyed? It does not merit the name.
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He that revels in a well-chosen library, has innumerable dishes, and all of admirable flavour.
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Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.
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