Author

Government was intended to suppress injustice, but its effect has been to embody and perpetuate it.

The most desirable state of mankind is that which maintains general security with the smallest encroachment upon individual independence.

From William Godwin

Duty is that mode of action which constitutes the best application of the capacity of the individual to the general advantage.

From William Godwin

The extent of our progress in the cultivation of knowledge is unlimited.

From William Godwin

Soundness of understanding is connected with freedom of enquiry; consequently, opinion should, as far as public security will admit, be exempted from restraint.

From William Godwin

The evils that arise to us from the structure of the material universe are neither trivial nor few, yet the history of political society sufficiently shows that man is, of all other beings, the most formidable enemy to man.

From William Godwin

Self-deception is so far from impossible that it is one of the most ordinary phenomena with which we are acquainted. Nothing is more usual than for a man to impute his actions to honorable motives when it is nearly demonstrable that they flowed from some corrupt and contemptible force.

From William Godwin

When we look on the roses and gaiety of youth, the mournful idea of mortality is altogether alien to our thoughts. We have heard of it as a speculation and a tale, but nothing but experience can bring it home to us.

From William Godwin

Innocence is not virtue. Virtue demands the active employment of an ardent mind in the promotion of the general good. No man can be eminently virtuous who is not accustomed to an extensive range of reflection.

From William Godwin

The question now afloat in the world respecting 'things as they are' is the most interesting that can be presented to the human mind. While one party pleads for reformation and change, the other extols in the warmest terms the existing constitution of society.

From William Godwin

William Godwin

Notable Quotes

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Authors with Opposing Views

Benjamin Disraeli

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