William Godwin
William Godwin
William Godwinwas an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism, and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous for two books that he published within the space of a year: An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, an attack on political institutions, and Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams, which attacks aristocratic privilege, but also is the first mystery novel. Based on the success of both,...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth3 March 1756
William Godwin quotes about
Whenever truth stands in the mind unaccompanied by the evidence upon which it depends, it cannot properly be said to be apprehended at all.
Let us not, in the eagerness of our haste to educate, forget all the ends of education.
It is absurd to expect the inclinations and wishes of two human beings to coincide, through any long period of time. To oblige them to act and live together is to subject them to some inevitable potion of thwarting, bickering, and unhappiness.
The subtleties of mathematics defecate the grossness of our apprehension, and supply the elements of a sounder and severer logic.
Everything understood by the term co-operation is in some sense an evil.
Our judgment will always suspect those weapons that can be used with equal prospect of success on both sides.
I shall attempt to prove two things: first, that the actions and dispositions of mankind are the offspring of circumstances and events, and not of any original determination that they bring into the world; and, secondly, that the great stream of our voluntary actions essentially depends, not upon the direct and immediate impulses of sense, but upon the decisions of the understanding.
The lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of their riper years.
But the watchful care of the parent is endless. The youth is never free from the danger of grating interference.
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.
Power is not happiness.
There can be no passion, and by consequence no love, where there is not imagination.
We are so curiously made that one atom put in the wrong place in our original structure will often make us unhappy for life.
Study with desire is real activity; without desire it is but the semblance and mockery of activity.