William Godwin Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn. The true object of juvenile education, is to provide, against the age of five and twenty, a mind well regulated, active, and prepared to learn. Whatever will inspire habits of industry and observation, will sufficiently answer this purpose.

  William Godwin

  Children, Inspire, Mind

  William Godwin (1797). “The Enquirer: Reflections on Education, Manners, and Literature. In a Series of Essays”, p.78

  9 Copy quote

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

  William Godwin

  Power, Men, Nations

  "Reflections on Political Justice: Selections from the Writings of William Godwin".

  5 Copy quote

• The most desirable mode of education, is that which is careful that all the acquisitions of the pupil shall be preceded and accompanied by desire . . . The boy, like the man, studies because he desires it. He proceeds upon a plan of is own invention, or by which, by adopting, he has made his own. Everything bespeaks independence and inequality.

  William Godwin

  Boys, Men, Independence

  6 Copy quote

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

  William Godwin

  Allies, Genius, Too Much

  William Godwin (1823). “The enquirer. Reflections on education, manners, and literature. In a series of essays”, p.332

  5 Copy quote

• Literature, taken in all its bearings, forms the grand line of demarcation between the human and the animal kingdoms.

  William Godwin

  Taken, Animal, Literature

  William Godwin (1797). “The Enquirer: Reflections on Education, Manners and Literature, in a Series of Essays”, p.31

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  Men, Earth, Reason

  William Godwin (1831). “Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions, and Discoveries: Interspersed with Some Particulars Respecting the Author”, p.243

  8 Copy quote

• Obey; this may be right; but beware of reverence.... Government is nothing but regulated force; force is its appropriate claim upon your attention. It is the business of individuals to persuade; the tendency of concentrated strength, is only to give consistency and permanence to an influence more compendious than persuasion.

  William Godwin

  Government, Giving, Consistency

  William Godwin (1798). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness”, p.230

  11 Copy quote

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

  William Godwin

  Children, Parent, Sound

  William Godwin (1831). “Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions, and Discoveries: Interspersed with Some Particulars Respecting the Author”, p.276

  10 Copy quote

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

  William Godwin

  Desire, And Love, Reason

  William Godwin (1831). “Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions, and Discoveries: Interspersed with Some Particulars Respecting the Author”, p.346

  9 Copy quote

• Let us not, in the eagerness of our haste to educate, forget all the ends of education.

  William Godwin

  Education, Haste, Forget

  William Godwin (1823). “The enquirer. Reflections on education, manners, and literature. In a series of essays”, p.69

  9 Copy quote

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

  William Godwin

  Names, Doe, Merit

  William Godwin (1831). “Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions, and Discoveries: Interspersed with Some Particulars Respecting the Author”, p.355

  8 Copy quote

• Books are the depositary of everything that is most honourable to man.

  William Godwin

  Book, Men, Lovers

  William Godwin (1823). “The enquirer. Reflections on education, manners, and literature. In a series of essays”, p.27

  5 Copy quote

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

  William Godwin

  Meditation, Firsts, Execution

  William Godwin (1831). “Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions, and Discoveries: Interspersed with Some Particulars Respecting the Author”, p.346

  9 Copy quote

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

  William Godwin

  Children, Importance, Juvenile

  William Godwin (1797). “The Enquirer. Reflections on education, manners, and literature. In a series of essays”, p.78

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Taken, Past, My Thoughts

  William Godwin (2006). “Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions and Discoveries”, p.367, ReadHowYouWant.com

  5 Copy quote

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

  William Godwin

  Parent, Care, Youth

  William Godwin (1823). “The Enquirer”, p.60

  10 Copy quote

• The subtleties of mathematics defecate the grossness of our apprehension, and supply the elements of a sounder and severer logic.

  William Godwin

  Elements, Statistics, Logic

  William Godwin (2006). “Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions and Discoveries”, p.589, ReadHowYouWant.com

  5 Copy quote

• The virtue of a human being is the application of his capacity to the general good.

  William Godwin

  Virtue, Capacity, Application

  William Godwin (1793). “An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice: And Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness”, p.309

  5 Copy quote

• The lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of their riper years.

  William Godwin

  Years, Lessons, Youth

  William Godwin (1831). “Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions, and Discoveries: Interspersed with Some Particulars Respecting the Author”, p.206

  7 Copy quote

• There is no sphere in which a human being can be supposed to act where one mode of reasoning will not, in every given instance, be more reasonable than any other mode. That mode the being is bound by every principle of justice to pursue.

  William Godwin

  Justice, Atheism, Spheres

  5 Copy quote

• Our judgment will always suspect those weapons that can be used with equal prospect of success on both sides.

  William Godwin

  Peace, Weapons, Sides

  5 Copy quote

• No maxim can be more pernicious than that which would teach us to consult the temper of the times, and to tell only so much as we imagine our contemporaries will be able to bear.

  William Godwin

  Able, Bears, Imagine

  William Godwin (1793). “An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice,: And Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness”, p.880

  5 Copy quote

• My mind was bursting with depression and anguish. I muttered imprecations and murmuring as I passed along. I was full of loathing and abhorrence of life, and all that life carries in its train.

  William Godwin

  Depression, Mind, Loathing

  William Godwin (1831). “Caleb Williams”, p.347

  5 Copy quote

• 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. The first of these a just philosophy will probably induce us universally to explode.

  William Godwin

  Philosophy, Real, Men

  William Godwin (1798). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness”, p.158

  11 Copy quote

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

  William Godwin

  Length Of Life, Doctrine, Statistics

  5 Copy quote

Page 3 of 4

First

← Prev

1

2

3

4

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin