English - Writer | March 3, 1756 - April 7, 1836
Self-deception is so far from impossible that it is one of the most ordinary phenomena with which we are acquainted. Nothing is more usual than for a man to impute his actions to honorable motives when it is nearly demonstrable that they flowed from some corrupt and contemptible force.
William Godwin
ManImpossibleNothingMoreCorrupt
Innocence is not virtue. Virtue demands the active employment of an ardent mind in the promotion of the general good. No man can be eminently virtuous who is not accustomed to an extensive range of reflection.
GoodReflectionManMindInnocence
Love conquers all difficulties, surmounts all obstacles, and effects what to any other power would be impossible.
LovePowerObstaclesImpossibleAny
The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.
ManPhilosophyActIntrospection
Above all we should not forget that government is an evil, a usurpation upon the private judgement and individual conscience of mankind.
GovernmentEvilForgetJudgement
Harshness and unkindness are relative. The appearance of them may be the fruits of the greatest kindness.
KindnessAppearanceGreatestMay
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.
NatureSympathyEnoughSeeingSin
Hope is in some respects a thing more brilliant, more vivifying, than fruition. What we have looked forward to with eager and earnest aspiration is never in all respects equal to the picture we had formed of it. The very uncertainty enhances the enjoyment.
HopeForwardUncertaintyPicture
Human depravity originates in the vices of political constitution.
ConstitutionPoliticalHumanVices
Perseverance is an active principle, and cannot continue to operate but under the influence of desire.
PerseveranceInfluenceDesireActive
Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped power can stand against the artillery of opinion.
PowerMenWiseOpinionFreeStand
But the watchful care of the parent is endless. The youth is never free from the danger of grating interference.
YouthFreeCareParentNeverDanger
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