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The virtue of a human being is the application of his capacity to the general good.

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
Good
Application
Capacity
General
Virtue
Human
Humans

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There can be no passion, and by consequence no love, where there is not imagination.
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Invisible things are the only realities invisible things alone are the things that shall remain.
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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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In a well-written book we are presented with the maturest reflections, or the happiest flights of a mind of uncommon excellence. It is impossible that we can be much accustomed to such companions without attaining some resemblance to them.
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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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Justice is the sum of all moral duty.
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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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Literature, taken in all its bearings, forms the grand line of demarcation between the human and the animal kingdoms.
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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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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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Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.
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It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn.
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Books are the depositary of everything that is most honourable to man.
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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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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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Study with desire is real activity without desire it is but the semblance and mockery of activity.
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One of the prerogatives by which man is eminently distinguished from all other living beings inhabiting this globe of earth, consists in the gift of 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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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 subtleties of mathematics defecate the grossness of our apprehension, and supply the elements of a sounder and severer logic.
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