William Godwin Quotes

He that loves reading has everything within his reach.

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.

Whenever government assumes to deliver us from the trouble of thinking for ourselves, the only consequences it produces are those of torpor and imbecility.

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

Above all we should not forget, that government is an evil, an usurpation upon the private judgment and individual conscience of mankind.

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

The great model of the affection of love in human beings is the sentiment which subsists between parents and children.

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

The wise man is satisfied with nothing.

The proper method for hastening the decay of error is by teaching every man to think for himself.

To conceive that compulsion and punishment are the proper means of reformation is the sentiment of a barbarian.

The first duty of man is to take none of the principles of conduct upon trust; to do nothing without a clear and individual conviction that it is right to be done.

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.

As long as parents and teachers in general shall fall under the established rule, it is clear that politics and modes of government will educate and infect us all. They poison our minds, before we can resist, or so much as suspect their malignity. Like the barbarous directors of the Eastern seraglios, they deprive us of our vitality, and fit us for their despicable employment from the cradle.

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.

Invisible things are the only realities; invisible things alone are the things that shall remain.

God himself has no right to be a tyrant.

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 first of these a just philosophy will probably induce us universally to explode.

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.

If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book.

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

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

All education is despotism. It is perhaps impossible for the young to be conducted without introducing in many cases the tyranny implicit in obedience. Go there; do that; read; write; rise; lie down - will perhaps forever be the language addressed to youth by age.

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.

Obey; 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.

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

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

Everything that is usually understood by the term co-operation is, in some degree, an evil.

It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn. The true object of juvenile education, is to provide, against the age of five and twenty, a mind well regulated, active, and prepared to learn. Whatever will inspire habits of industry and observation, will sufficiently answer this purpose.

Let us not, in the eagerness of our haste to educate, forget all the ends of education.

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

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

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

Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.

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

In cases where every thing is understood, and measured, and reduced to rule, love is out of the question.

Whenever truth stands in the mind unaccompanied by the evidence upon which it depends, it cannot properly be said to be apprehended at all.

We are so curiously made that one atom put in the wrong place in our original structure will often make us unhappy for life.

One of the prerogatives by which man is eminently distinguished from all other living beings inhabiting this globe of earth, consists in the gift of reason.

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.

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.

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

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

If admiration were not generally deemed the exclusive property of the rich, and contempt the constant lackey of poverty, the love of gain would cease to be an universal problem.

It is absurd to expect the inclinations and wishes of two human beings to coincide, through any long period of time. To oblige them to act and live together is to subject them to some inevitable potion of thwarting, bickering, and unhappiness.

In a well-written book we are presented with the maturest reflections, or the happiest flights of a mind of uncommon excellence. It is impossible that we can be much accustomed to such companions without attaining some resemblance to them.

By right, as the word is employed in this subject, has always been understood discretion, that is, a full and complete power of either doing a thing or omitting it, without the person's becoming liable to animadversion or censure from another, that is, in other words, without his incurring any degree of turpitude or guilt. Now in this sense I affirm that man has no rights, no discretionary power whatever.

Books gratify and excite our curiosity in innumerable ways.

He that revels in a well-chosen library, has innumerable dishes, and all of admirable flavour.