No man knows the value of innocence and integrity but he who has lost them. — William Godwin Copy Share Image
I never did, and I never will, thank any man for altering any one word of my compositions without my privity. — William Godwin Copy Share Image
The man who plays his part upon the theatre of life almost always maintains what may be called an artificial character. — William Godwin Copy Share Image
There are so many ways in which the heart of man conceals itself from man! — William Godwin Copy Share Image
A just and a brave man acts fearlessly and with explicitness; he does not shun, but court, the scrutiny of mankind; he… — William Godwin Copy Share Image
In the graver and more sentimental communication of man and man, the head still bears the superior sway; in the unreserved intimacies… — William Godwin Copy Share Image
Let no man despise the oracles of books! A book is a dead man, a sort of mummy, embowelled and embalmed, but… — William Godwin Copy Share Image
Innocence is not virtue. Virtue demands the active employment of an ardent mind in the promotion of the general good. No man… — William Godwin Copy Share Image
Man is a being of a mixed nature; and, as there is no integrity without its flaws, so is there no man… — William Godwin Copy Share Image
The soul of man is one of those subtle and evanescent substances that, as long as they remain still, the organ of… — William Godwin Copy Share Image
The value of a man is in his intrinsic qualities: in that of which power cannot strip him and which adverse fortune… — William Godwin Copy Share Image
The evils that arise to us from the structure of the material universe are neither trivial nor few, yet the history of… — William Godwin Copy Share Image
Social man regards all those by whom he is surrounded as enemies, or beings who may become such. He is ever on… — William Godwin Copy Share Image
Self-deception is so far from impossible that it is one of the most ordinary phenomena with which we are acquainted. Nothing is… — William Godwin Copy Share Image
It is of no consequence whether a man of genius have learned either art or science before twenty-five: all that is necessary,… — William Godwin Copy Share Image
Woe to the man who is always busy - hurried in a turmoil of engagements, from occupation to occupation, and with no… — William Godwin Copy Share Image
Extraordinary circumstances often bring along with them extraordinary strength. No man knows, till the experiment, what he is capable of effecting. — William Godwin Copy Share Image
The real or supposed rights of man are of two kinds, active and passive; the right in certain cases to do as… — William Godwin Copy Share Image
It is necessary for him who would endure existence with patience that he should conceive himself to be something - that he… — William Godwin Copy Share Image
Law is made for man and not man for the law. Wherever we can be sure that the most valuable interests of… — William Godwin Copy Share Image
I know nothing worth the living for but usefulness and the service of my fellow-creatures. The only object I pursue is to increase, as… — William Godwin Copy Share
There must be room for the imagination to exercise its powers; we must conceive and apprehend a thousand things which we do not actually… — William Godwin Copy Share
In infamy, it is wisely provided that he who stands highest in the ranks of society has the heaviest load to sustain. — William Godwin Copy Share
No man knows the value of innocence and integrity but he who has lost them. — William Godwin Copy Share
Study with desire is real activity; without desire it is but the semblance and mockery of activity. — William Godwin Copy Share
“Godwin on Fenelon and his Valet * Following is an excerpt from William Godwin's Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, Book II, Chapter II: “Of Justice”:… — William Godwin Copy Share
Tenderness is the name for a lover's most exquisite sensation; protection is implied in his most generous and heart-thrilling impulse. — William Godwin Copy Share
Whenever government assumes to deliver us from the trouble of thinking for ourselves, the only consequences it produces are those of torpor and imbecility. — William Godwin Copy Share
During my academical life, and from this time forward, I was indefatigable in my search after truth. I read all the authors of greatest… — William Godwin Copy Share
Was ever a great discovery prosecuted or an important benefit conferred upon the human race by him who was incapable of standing and thinking… — William Godwin Copy Share
The real or supposed rights of man are of two kinds, active and passive; the right in certain cases to do as we list;… — William Godwin Copy Share
Soundness of understanding is connected with freedom of enquiry; consequently, opinion should, as far as public security will admit, be exempted from restraint. — William Godwin Copy Share
Power is not happiness. Security and peace are more to be desired than a man at which nations tremble. — William Godwin Copy Share
“Strange that men, from age to age, should consent to hold their lives at the breath of another, merely that each in his turn… — William Godwin Copy Share
