198 Quotes by William Godwin

The evils that arise to us from the structure of the material universe are neither trivial nor few, yet the history of political society sufficiently shows that man is, of all other beings, the most formidable enemy to man.

When we look on the roses and gaiety of youth, the mournful idea of mortality is altogether alien to our thoughts. We have heard of it as a speculation and a tale, but nothing but experience can bring it home to us.

I know not how it is: there are some businesses for which dullness seems to be a qualification.

The world is all alike. Those that seem better than their neighbours are only more artful. They mean the same thing, though they take a different road.

Occupation - pressing occupation that will not be said nay - is a sovereign remedy for grief.

How different a creature is man in society and man in solitude!

The love of independence and dislike of unjust treatment is the source of a thousand virtues.

Extraordinary circumstances often bring along with them extraordinary strength. No man knows, till the experiment, what he is capable of effecting.

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.