William Godwin Quotes

Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.

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.

I shall attempt to prove two things: first, that the actions and dispositions of mankind are the offspring of circumstances and events, and not of any original determination that they bring into the world; and, secondly, that the great stream of our voluntary actions essentially depends, not upon the direct and immediate impulses of sense, but upon the decisions of the understanding.

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.

Our judgment will always suspect those weapons that can be used with equal prospect of success on both sides.

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.

If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book.

Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.

Let us not, in the eagerness of our haste to educate, forget all the ends of education.

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.

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.

It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn.

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.

What can be more clear and sound in explanation, than the love of a parent to his child?

It is absurd to expect the inclinations and wishes of two human beings to coincide, through any long period of time. To oblige them to act and live together is to subject them to some inevitable potion of thwarting, bickering, and unhappiness.

The subtleties of mathematics defecate the grossness of our apprehension, and supply the elements of a sounder and severer logic.

The wise man is satisfied with nothing.

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.

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.

The lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of their riper years.

Books are the depositary of everything that is most honourable to man.

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.

Learning is the ally, not the adversary of genius... he who reads in a proper spirit, can scarcely read too much.

By right, as the word is employed in this subject, has always been understood discretion, that is, a full and complete power of either doing a thing or omitting it, without the person's becoming liable to animadversion or censure from another, that is, in other words, without his incurring any degree of turpitude or guilt. Now in this sense I affirm that man has no rights, no discretionary power whatever.

He that loves reading has everything within his reach.

The great model of the affection of love in human beings is the sentiment which subsists between parents and children.

Everything that is usually understood by the term co-operation is, in some degree, an evil.

If there be such a thing as truth, it must infallibly be struck out by the collision of mind with mind.

The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.

Power is not happiness. Security and peace are more to be desired than a name at which nations tremble.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Of Belief Human mathematics, so to speak, like the length of life, are subject to the doctrine of chances.

In cases where every thing is understood, and measured, and reduced to rule, love is out of the question.

Whenever truth stands in the mind unaccompanied by the evidence upon which it depends, it cannot properly be said to be apprehended at all.

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.

Man is the only creature we know, that, when the term of his natural life is ended, leaves the memory of himself behind him.

Study with desire is real activity; without desire it is but the semblance and mockery of activity.

Perseverance is an active principle, and cannot continue to operate but under the influence of desire.

He that revels in a well-chosen library, has innumerable dishes, and all of admirable flavour.

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.

Revolutions are the produce of passion, not of sober and tranquil reason.

Books gratify and excite our curiosity in innumerable ways.

Above all we should not forget, that government is an evil, an usurpation upon the private judgment and individual conscience of mankind.

Literature, taken in all its bearings, forms the grand line of demarcation between the human and the animal kingdoms.

Whenever government assumes to deliver us from the trouble of thinking for ourselves, the only consequences it produces are those of torpor and imbecility.