Quotes By William Godwin
But the watchful care of the parent is endless. The youth is never free from the danger of grating interference.
William Godwin
We cannot perform our tasks to the best of our power, unless we think well of our own capacity.
William Godwin
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.
William Godwin
Above all we should not forget that government is an evil, a usurpation upon the private judgement and individual conscience of mankind.
William Godwin
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.
William Godwin
What can be more clear and sound in explanation, than the love of a parent to his child?
William Godwin
In cases where every thing is understood, and measured, and reduced to rule, love is out of the question.
William Godwin
The execution of any thing considerable implies in the first place previous persevering meditation.
William Godwin
Every man has a certain sphere of discretion which he has a right to expect shall not be infringed by his neighbours. This right flows from the very nature of man.
William Godwin
Let us not, in the eagerness of our haste to educate, forget all the ends of education.
William Godwin
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.
William Godwin
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.
William Godwin
The diligent scholar is he that loves himself, and desires to have reason to applaud and love himself.
William Godwin
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.
William Godwin
Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.
William Godwin
Learning is the ally, not the adversary of genius... he who reads in a proper spirit, can scarcely read too much.
William Godwin
Study with desire is real activity; without desire it is but the semblance and mockery of activity.
William Godwin
It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn.
William Godwin
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.
William Godwin
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.
William Godwin
The proper method for hastening the decay of error is by teaching every man to think for himself.
William Godwin
Perseverance is an active principle, and cannot continue to operate but under the influence of desire.
William Godwin