William Godwin

Found 13 thoughts of William Godwin

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

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.

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

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

Revolutions are the produce of passion, not of sober and tranquil reason.

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

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

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.

He that loves reading has everything within his reach.

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.

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

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

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