William Godwin Quotes

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William Godwin

Profession : Writer

Birth : March 3, 1756

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

William Godwin

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

William Godwin

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

William Godwin

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

William Godwin

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

William Godwin

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

William Godwin

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

William Godwin

Everything understood by the term co-operation is in some sense an evil.

William Godwin

There is reverence that we owe to everything in human shape.

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

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

William Godwin

My thoughts will be taken up with the future or the past, with what is to come or what has been. Of the present there is necessarily no image.

William Godwin

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.

William Godwin

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

William Godwin

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

William Godwin

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.

William Godwin

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

William Godwin

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.

William Godwin

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.

William Godwin

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

William Godwin