William Godwin Quotes About Liberty

Quotes about: Liberty

• 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.

  William Godwin

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

  William Godwin (1796). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness”, p.261

• Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.... An attempt to scrutinize men's thoughts and punish their opinions is of all kinds of despotism the most odious: yet this is peculiarly character of a period of revolution.... There is no period more at war with the existence of liberty.

  William Godwin

  War, Character, Men

• He has no right to his life when his duty calls him to resign it. Other men are bound ... to deprive him of life or liberty, if that should appear in any case to be indispensably necessary to prevent a greater evil.

  William Godwin

  Men, Evil, Liberty

  William Godwin, Kay Codell Carter (1971). “Enquiry concerning political justice: with selections from Godwin's other writings”, Clarendon Press

• Government can have no more than two legitimate purposes - the suppression of injustice against individuals within the community, and the common defense against external invasion.

  William Godwin

  Government, Two, Community

  William Godwin (2015). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice: And Its Influence On Morals And Happiness”, p.466, Penguin UK

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