198 Quotes by William Godwin

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

I was famous in our college for calm and impassionate discussion; for one whole summer, I rose at five and went to bed at midnight, that I might have sufficient time for theology and metaphysics.

The true object of moral and political disquisition is pleasure or happiness.

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

England has been called, with great felicity of conception, 'the land of liberty and good sense.' We have preserved many of the advantages of a free people, which the nations of the Continent have long since lost.

Duty is that mode of action which constitutes the best application of the capacity of the individual to the general advantage.

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

I am an enemy to revolutions. I abhor, both from temper and from the clearest judgment I am able to form, all violent convulsions in the affairs of men.

Enthusiasm is always an interesting spectacle. When it expresses itself with an honest and artless eloquence, it is difficult to listen to it and not, in some degree, to catch the flame.