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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
Capacity
General
Virtue
Human
Humans
Good
Application

More quotes by William Godwin

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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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Our judgment will always suspect those weapons that can be used with equal prospect of success on both sides.
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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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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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My thoughts will be taken up with the future or the past, with what is to come or what has been. Of the present there is necessarily no image.
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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.
William Godwin
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The lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of their riper years.
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He that loves reading has everything within his reach.
William Godwin
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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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God himself has no right to be a tyrant.
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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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He that revels in a well-chosen library, has innumerable dishes, and all of admirable flavour.
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All education is despotism. It is perhaps impossible for the young to be conducted without introducing in many cases the tyranny implicit in obedience. Go there do that read write rise lie down - will perhaps forever be the language addressed to youth by age.
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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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Books are the depositary of everything that is most honourable to man.
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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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In cases where every thing is understood, and measured, and reduced to rule, love is out of the question.
William Godwin
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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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Let us not, in the eagerness of our haste to educate, forget all the ends of education.
William Godwin
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If there be such a thing as truth, it must infallibly be struck out by the collision of mind with mind.
William Godwin