Quotes By 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.

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

There is reverence that we owe to everything in human shape.

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.

They held it their duty to live but for their country.

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

To him it is an ocean, unfathomable, and without a shore.

God himself has no right to be a tyrant.

Justice is the sum of all moral duty.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

The execution of any thing considerable implies in the first place previous persevering meditation.

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

What indeed is life, unless so far as it is enjoyed? It does not merit the name.

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 diligent scholar is he that loves himself, and desires to have reason to applaud and love himself.

Government will not fail to employ education, to strengthen its hands, and perpetuate its institutions.

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

Everything understood by the term co-operation is in some sense an evil.

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

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

There can be no passion, and by consequence no love, where there is not imagination.

But the watchful care of the parent is endless. The youth is never free from the danger of grating interference.

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

We cannot perform our tasks to the best of our power, unless we think well of our own capacity.