William Godwin
writer, political philosopher, novelist, philosopher, journalist, science fiction writer
Read on Wikipedia1756 – 1836
All Quotes by William Godwin
“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.”
“Portable Enlightenment Reader, p. 478-479”
“Government was intended to suppress injustice, but its effect has been to embody and perpetuate it.”
“Love conquers all difficulties, surmounts all obstacles, and effects what to any other power would be impossible.”
“The most desirable state of mankind is that which maintains general security with the smallest encroachment upon individual independence.”
“Invisible things are the only realities; invisible things alone are the things that shall remain.”
“Let us not, in the eagerness of our haste to educate, forget all the ends of education.”
“There can be no passion, and by consequence no love, where there is not imagination.”
“Invisible things are the only realities; invisible things alone are the things that shall remain.”
“The extent of our progress in the cultivation of knowledge is unlimited.”
“Above all we should not forget that government is an evil, a usurpation upon the private judgement and individual conscience of mankind.”
“Justice is the sum of all moral duty.”
“Innocence is not virtue. Virtue demands the active employment of an ardent mind in the promotion of the general good. No man can be eminently virtuous who is not accustomed to an extensive range of reflection.”
“There can be no passion, and by consequence no love, where there is not imagination.”
“The love of independence and dislike of unjust treatment is the source of a thousand virtues.”
“Was ever a great discovery prosecuted or an important benefit conferred upon the human race by him who was incapable of standing and thinking and feeling alone?”
“The most desirable state of mankind is that which maintains general security with the smallest encroachment upon individual independence.”
“He that loves reading has everything within his reach.”
“There must be room for the imagination to exercise its powers; we must conceive and apprehend a thousand things which we do not actually witness.”
“To diminish the cases in which the assistance of others is felt absolutely necessary is the only genuine road to independence.”
“If he who employs coercion against me could mould me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to punish me because his argument is strong; but he really punishes me because his argument is weak.”
“Government was intended to suppress injustice, but it offers new occasions and temptations for the commission of it.”
“To diminish the cases in which the assistance of others is felt absolutely necessary is the only genuine road to independence.”
“Government was intended to suppress injustice, but its effect has been to embody and perpetuate it.”
“Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.”
“Men may one day feel that they are partakers of a common nature, and that true freedom and perfect equity, like food and air, are pregnant with benefit to every constitution.”
“If there be such a thing as truth, it must infallibly be struck out by the collision of mind with mind.”
“Whenever government assumes to deliver us from the trouble of thinking for ourselves, the only consequences it produces are those of torpor and imbecility.”
“To conceive that compulsion and punishment are the proper means of reformation, is the sentiment of a barbarian; civilisation and science are calculated to explode so ferocious an idea. It was once universally admitted and approved; it is now necessarily upon the decline.”