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 GodwinPower is not happiness. Security and peace are more to be desired than a name at which nations tremble.
William GodwinOur judgment will always suspect those weapons that can be used with equal prospect of success on both sides.
William GodwinThe diligent scholar is he that loves himself, and desires to have reason to applaud and love himself.
William GodwinObey; 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.
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