Date: 1793

The extirpation of error "frees us from the influence of those phantoms which before misled us, shows us our true advantage as consisting in independence and integrity, and binds us by the general consent of our fellow citizens to the dictates of reason, more strongly than with fetters of iron."

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1793

"Mind will frequently burst forth, but its appearance will be like the corruscations of the meteor, not like the mild illumination of the sun"

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1793

"Anarchy awakens mind"

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1793

Corporal punishment closes all "wholsome avenues of mind ... and on every side we see them guarded with a train of disgraceful passions, hatred, revenge, despotism, cruelty, hypocrisy, conspiracy and cowardice."

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1793

"Law may be supposed to have been constructed in the tranquil serenity of the soul, a suitable monitor to check the inflamed mind with which the recent memory of ills might induce us to proceed to the exercise of coercion"

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1793

"The present ruling passion of the human mind is the love of distinction. "

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1793

" [I]t is hardly to be believed that any man for the sake of some imaginary gratification to himself would wantonly injure the whole, if his mind were not first ulcerated with the impression of the injury that society by its ordinances is committing against him"

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1793

"The equalisation we are describing is farther indebted for its empire in the mind to the ideas with which it is attended of personal happiness."

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1793

"The most palpable of all classes of knowledge is that I am, personally considered, but an atom in the ocean of mind."

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1793

"If mind be now in a great degree the ruler of the system, why should it be incapable of extending its empire?"

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)