William Godwin

Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped…

— William Godwin

Government, as it was forced upon mankind by their vices, so has it commonly been the creature of their ignorance and mistake.

— William Godwin

Of Belief Human mathematics, so to speak, like the length of life, are subject to the doctrine of chances.

— William Godwin

Extraordinary circumstances often bring along with them extraordinary strength. No man knows, till the experiment, what he is capable of effecting.

— William Godwin

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

— William Godwin

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

— William Godwin

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

— William Godwin

A world of derived beings, an immense, wide creation, requires an extended scale with various ranks and orders of existence.

— William Godwin

Men who do not contend in earnest can have little warmth and fervor in what they undertake, and are more than half…

— William Godwin

Every boy learns more in his hours of play than in his hours of labor. In school, he lays in the materials…

— William Godwin

Hope is in some respects a thing more brilliant, more vivifying, than fruition. What we have looked forward to with eager and…

— William Godwin

In the summer of 1791, I gave up my concern in the 'New Annual Register,' the historical part of which I had…

— William Godwin

Perhaps the majority of human beings never think of standing by themselves, and choosing their own employments, till the sentence has been…

— William Godwin

I am most peremptorily of opinion against putting children extremely forward. If they desire it themselves, I would not balk them, for…

— William Godwin

Innocence is not virtue. Virtue demands the active employment of an ardent mind in the promotion of the general good. No man…

— William Godwin

How nations and races of men are to be so governed as may be most conducive to the improvement and happiness of…

— William Godwin

We cannot, any of us, do all the things of which mankind stand in need; we must have fellow-labourers.

— William Godwin

In contemplation and reverie, one thought introduces another perpetually; and it is by similarity, or the hooking of one upon the other,…

— William Godwin

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

— William Godwin

The four principal oral instructors to whom I feel my mind indebted for improvement were Joseph Fawcet, Thomas Holcroft, George Dyson, and…

— William Godwin

There must be room for the imagination to exercise its powers; we must conceive and apprehend a thousand things which we do…

— William Godwin

Law is made for man and not man for the law. Wherever we can be sure that the most valuable interests of…

— William Godwin

Power is not happiness. Security and peace are more to be desired than a name at which nations tremble.

— William Godwin

I know not how it is: there are some businesses for which dullness seems to be a qualification.

— William Godwin

The man who plays his part upon the theatre of life almost always maintains what may be called an artificial character.

— William Godwin

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

— William Godwin

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

— William Godwin

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

— William Godwin

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

— William Godwin

Government can have no more than two legitimate purposes - the suppression of injustice against individuals within the community, and the common…

— William Godwin

Man is the only creature we know, that, when the term of his natural life is ended, leaves the memory of himself…

— William Godwin

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

— William Godwin

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

— William Godwin

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

— William Godwin

It is one of the oldest maxims of moral prudence: Do not, by aspiring to what is impracticable, lose the opportunity of…

— 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…

— William Godwin

The admission of one man, either hereditarily or for life only, into the place of chief of a country, is an evidence…

— William Godwin

The proper method for hastening the decay of error, is not, by brute force, or by regulation which is one of the…

— William Godwin

If he who employs coercion against me could mould me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to…

— William Godwin

We covet experience; we have a secret desire to learn, not from cold prohibition, but from trial, whether those things, which are…

— William Godwin