No maxim can be more pernicious than that which would teach us to consult the temper of the times, and to tell only so much as we imagine our contemporaries will be able to bear.
William GodwinPower is not happiness. Security and peace are more to be desired than a name at which nations tremble.
William GodwinAbove all we should not forget, that government is an evil, an usurpation upon the private judgment and individual conscience of mankind.
William GodwinRevolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.... An attempt to scrutinize men's thoughts and punish their opinions is of all kinds of despotism the most odious: yet this is peculiarly character of a period of revolution.... There is no period more at war with the existence of liberty.
William Godwin