English - Writer | March 3, 1756 - April 7, 1836
Every man has a certain sphere of discretion which he has a right to expect shall not be infringed by his neighbours. This right flows from the very nature of man.
William Godwin
NatureManRightExpectDiscretion
A world of derived beings, an immense, wide creation, requires an extended scale with various ranks and orders of existence.
WorldCreationExistenceOrdersWide
Superior virtue must be the fruit of superior intelligence.
IntelligenceFruitVirtueSuperior
I believe in this being, not because I have any proper or direct knowledge of His existence, but I am at a loss to account for the existence and arrangement of the visible universe, and, being left in the wide sea of conjecture without a clue from analogy or experience, I find the conjecture of a God easy, obvious, and irresistible.
GodKnowledgeSeaExperienceI Am
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.
MenI AmEnemyJudgmentTemperAble
I know nothing worth the living for but usefulness and the service of my fellow-creatures. The only object I pursue is to increase, as far as lies in my power, the quantity of their knowledge and goodness and happiness.
HappinessKnowledgePowerService
It is of no consequence whether a man of genius have learned either art or science before twenty-five: all that is necessary, or even desirable, is that his powers should be unfolded, his emulation roused, and his habits conducted into a right channel.
ScienceArtManGeniusRightHabits
Give energy, and mental exertion will always have attraction enough.
EnergyEnoughWillAlwaysMental
I am now in the full maturity of my age and vigor of my mind. Persons of various descriptions have repeatedly solicited me to turn my mind to dramatical composition. It was, indeed, the first amusement of my thoughts in my school-boy cell.
AgeI AmMaturityMindMeThoughts
In the two novels I have published, it was my fortune at different times, and from different persons, to hear the most unqualified censure long before it was possible for me to hear the voice of the public. But my temper was not altered, nor my courage subdued.
CourageMeVoiceLongPossibleTwo
I never did, and I never will, thank any man for altering any one word of my compositions without my privity.
ManOne WordWillNeverWithoutDid
Human creatures, living in the circle of their intimates and friends, are too apt to remain in ignorance of the comments and instructions which may be made of what they say and do in the world at large. I entertain a great horror of this ignorance.
GreatIgnoranceWorldFriendsLiving
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict William Godwin quotes