William Godwin Quotes

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.

Our Judgment Will Always Suspect Those Weapons That Can Be Used With Equal Prospect Of Success On Both Sides.

No Maxim Can Be More Pernicious Than That Which Would Teach Us To Consult The Temper Of The Times, And To Tell Only So Much As We Imagine Our Contemporaries Will Be Able To Bear.

A Celebrated North Country Apostle, Who, After Calvin Had Damned Ninety-nine In A Hundred Of Mankind, Had Contrived A Scheme For Damning Ninety-nine In A Hundred Of The Followers Of Calvin.

Let Us Not, In The Eagerness Of Our Haste To Educate, Forget All The Ends Of Education.

The Lessons Of Their Early Youth Regulated The Conduct Of Their Riper Years.

Of Belief Human Mathematics, So To Speak, Like The Length Of Life, Are Subject To The Doctrine Of Chances.

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.

There Is No Sphere In Which A Human Being Can Be Supposed To Act Where One Mode Of Reasoning Will Not, In Every Given Instance, Be More Reasonable Than Any Other Mode. That Mode The Being Is Bound By Every Principle Of Justice To Pursue.

What Can Be More Clear And Sound In Explanation, Than The Love Of A Parent To His Child?

The Virtue Of A Human Being Is The Application Of His Capacity To The General Good.

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.