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" The real or supposed rights of man are of two kinds, active and passive; the right in certain cases to do as we list; and the right we possess to the forbearance or assistance of other men. "
William Godwin
Right
Man
Men
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" Government was intended to suppress injustice, but its effect has been to embody and perpetuate it. "
William Godwin
Injustice
Government
Effect
" It is of no consequence whether a man of genius have learned either art or science before twenty-five: all that is necessary, or even desirable, is that his powers should be unfolded, his emulation roused, and his habits conducted into a right channel. "
William Godwin
Right
Science
Habits
" Man is a being of a mixed nature; and, as there is no integrity without its flaws, so is there no man so knavish but that in some things he may be trusted. "
William Godwin
Without
Flaws
Man
" When the calamity we feared is already arrived, or when the expectation of it is so certain as to shut out hope, there seems to be a principle within us by which we look with misanthropic composure on the state to which we are reduced, and the heart sullenly contracts and accommodates itself to what it most abhorred. "
William Godwin
Expectation
Look
Hope
" The man who plays his part upon the theatre of life almost always maintains what may be called an artificial character. "
William Godwin
Always
Character
Life
" The true key of the universe is love. "
William Godwin
Universe
Key
Love
" Was ever a great discovery prosecuted or an important benefit conferred upon the human race by him who was incapable of standing and thinking and feeling alone? "
William Godwin
Thinking
Race
Great
" We covet experience; we have a secret desire to learn, not from cold prohibition, but from trial, whether those things, which are not without a semblance of good, are really so ill as they are described to us. "
William Godwin
Desire
Learn
Good
" I was brought up in great tenderness, and though my mind was proud to independence, I was never led to much independence of feeling. "
William Godwin
Mind
Independence
Great
" Religion is the most important of all things: the great point of discrimination that divides the man from the brute. It is our special prerogative that we can converse with that which we cannot see and believe in that the existence of which is reported to us by none of our senses. "
William Godwin
Great
Believe
Man
" Learning is the ally, not the adversary of genius... he who reads in a proper spirit, can scarcely read too much. "
William Godwin
Too Much
Ally
Genius
" The admission of one man, either hereditarily or for life only, into the place of chief of a country, is an evidence of the infirmity of man. Nature has set up no difference between a king and other men; a king, therefore, is purely the creation of our own hands. "
William Godwin
Man
Men
Nature
" 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
Opinion
Admit
Freedom
" Human creatures, living in the circle of their intimates and friends, are too apt to remain in ignorance of the comments and instructions which may be made of what they say and do in the world at large. I entertain a great horror of this ignorance. "
William Godwin
Ignorance
Great
World
" It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn. "
William Godwin
Importance
Learn
One Thing
" 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
Him
Natural
Life
" Sympathy is one of the principles most widely rooted in our nature: we rejoice to see ourselves reflected in another; and, perversely enough, we sometimes have a secret pleasure in seeing the sin which dwells in ourselves existing under a deformed and monstrous aspect in another. "
William Godwin
Enough
Nature
Seeing
" 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
Education
Copy
Thinking
" During my academical life, and from this time forward, I was indefatigable in my search after truth. I read all the authors of greatest repute, for and against the Trinity, original sin, and the most disputed doctrines, but I was not yet of an understanding sufficiently ripe for impartial decision, and all my inquiries terminated in Calvinism. "
William Godwin
Decision
Search
Truth
" Harshness and unkindness are relative. The appearance of them may be the fruits of the greatest kindness. "
William Godwin
Fruits
Appearance
Kindness
" The soul of man is one of those subtle and evanescent substances that, as long as they remain still, the organ of sight does not remark; it must become agitated to become visible. "
William Godwin
Man
Sight
Soul
" In the summer of 1791, I gave up my concern in the 'New Annual Register,' the historical part of which I had written for seven years, and abdicated, I hope forever, the task of performing a literary labour, the nature of which should be dictated by anything but the promptings of my own mind. "
William Godwin
Summer
Own
Mind
" Perhaps the majority of human beings never think of standing by themselves, and choosing their own employments, till the sentence has been regularly promulgated to them, 'It is time for you to take care of yourself.' "
William Godwin
Own
Yourself
You
" Social man regards all those by whom he is surrounded as enemies, or beings who may become such. He is ever on his guard lest his plain speaking should be willfully perverted, or should assume a meaning he never thought of, through the animosity or prejudice of the individual that hears him. "
William Godwin
Thought
Man
Meaning
" There is reverence that we owe to everything in human shape. "
William Godwin
Owe
Human
Everything
" The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection. "
William Godwin
Ever
Act
Man
" Give energy, and mental exertion will always have attraction enough. "
William Godwin
Always
Will
Mental
" Since it is one of the great attributes of our species to be susceptible of improvement and capable of experiencing the most beneficial changes, for this reason what are vulgarly called 'venerable establishments' will often range themselves in opposition to the best interests of the community. "
William Godwin
Best
Improvement
Great
" In the two novels I have published, it was my fortune at different times, and from different persons, to hear the most unqualified censure long before it was possible for me to hear the voice of the public. But my temper was not altered, nor my courage subdued. "
William Godwin
Possible
Long
Courage
" If a thing be really good, it can be shown to be such. "
William Godwin
Thing
Really
Good