# Quote — William Godwin, Enquiry Concerning Political Justice

> Government in reality, as has abundantly appeared, is a question of force, and not of consent. It is desirable that a government should be made as agreeable as possible to the ideas and inclinations of its subjects and that they should be consulted, as extensively as may be, respecting its construction and regulations. But, at last, the best constituted government that can be formed particularly for a large community, will contain many provisions that, far from having obtained the consent of all its members, encounter even in their outset a strenuous, thought ineffectual opposition.

- Author: [William Godwin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-godwin.md)
- Book: [Enquiry Concerning Political Justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-godwin/enquiry-concerning-political-justice.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Godwin#Enquiry_Concerning_Political_Justice_(1793)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-godwin/enquiry-concerning-political-justice/government-in-reality

## More from this book

> The benefit of the governed is made to lie on one side and the benefit of the governors on the other.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-godwin/enquiry-concerning-political-justice/the-benefit-of-the.md)

> The plebeian must expect to find himself neglected and despised in proportion as he is remiss in cultivation the objects of esteem; the lord will always be surrounded with sycophants and slaves. The lord therefore has no motive to industry and exertion; no stimulus to rouse him from the lethargic 'oblivious pool', out of which every human intellect originally arose.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-godwin/enquiry-concerning-political-justice/the-plebeian-must.md)

> The evil of marriage, as is it practiced in the European countries, extends further than we have yet described. The method is for a thoughtless and romantic youth of each sex, to come together, to see each other, for a few times, and under circumstances full of delusion and then to vow eternal attachment. What is the consequence of this? In almost every instance they find themselves deceived. They are reduced to make the best of an irretrievable mistake. They are led to conceive it their wiser policy, to shut their eyes upon realities, happy, if by any perversion of intellect, they can persuade themselves that they were right in their first crude opinion of each other. Thus the institution of marriage is made a system of fraud; and men who carefully mislead their judgement in the daily affair of their life, must be expected to have a crippled judgement in every other concern.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-godwin/enquiry-concerning-political-justice/the-evil-of-marriage.md)