William Godwin Quotes

• They held it their duty to live but for their country.

  William Godwin

  Topics in Country

  Tags in Duty

• Perseverance is an active principle, and cannot continue to operate but under the influence of desire.

  William Godwin

  Topics in Influence

  Tags in Perseverance, Desire

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

  William Godwin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Semblance, Mockery, Study, Desire

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

  William Godwin

  Topics in Youth

  Tags in Endless, Parent, Danger

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

  William Godwin

  Topics in Love

  Tags in Applaud, Reason, Diligence, Diligent

• 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

  Topics in Life, Memory

  Tags in Man, Leaves, Creature

• As the true object of education is not to render the pupil the mere copy of his preceptor, it is rather to be rejoiced in, than lamented, that various reading should lead him into new trains of thinking.

  William Godwin

  Topics in Education

  Tags in Pupil, Copy

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

  William Godwin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Above, Judgement, Conscience

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Globe, Earth, Man, Living

• He that loves reading has everything within his reach.

  William Godwin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Reading, Reach

• The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.

  William Godwin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Introspection, Act, Philosophy, Man

• The proper method for hastening the decay of error is by teaching every man to think for himself.

  William Godwin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Hastening, Teaching, Man

• There must be room for the imagination to exercise its powers; we must conceive and apprehend a thousand things which we do not actually witness.

  William Godwin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Apprehend, Exercise, Imagination

• 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

  Topics in Future

  Tags in Necessarily, Thoughts, Image

• Government will not fail to employ education, to strengthen its hands, and perpetuate its institutions.

  William Godwin

  Topics in Education

  Tags in Government, Perpetuate, Will

• 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

  Topics in Humanity, Justice, Love

  Tags in Will

• To him it is an ocean, unfathomable, and without a shore.

  William Godwin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Unfathomable, Shore, Ocean

• If a thing be really good, it can be shown to be such.

  William Godwin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Shown

• Revolutions are the produce of passion, not of sober and tranquil reason.

  William Godwin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Tranquil, Passion, Reason

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

  William Godwin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Revolution, Itself, Tyranny

William Godwin (38)

Birth:	3rd March, 1756
Death:	7th April, 1836
Nationality:	British
Profession:	Journalist, Novelist, Philosopher

Related Authors

• Alan Cranston
• Pete Hamill
• Timothy Daniel Sullivan
• Ada Cambridge
• Stephen Fry
• Daniel Goleman
• Andrew Ross Sorkin
• Maria Menounos
• Joe McGinniss
• Robert Stone

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 26th March

Births

• 1934 - Alan Arkin
• 1960 - Marcus Allen
• 1904 - Joseph Campbell
• 1933 - Vine Deloria Jr
• 1914 - William Westmoreland

Deaths

• 1980 - Roland Barthes
• 2002 - Randy Castillo
• 1959 - Raymond Chandler
• 1943 - Ben Lindsey
• 1973 - Noël Coward