William Godwin

Duty is that mode of action which constitutes the best application of the capacity of the individual to the general advantage. Right is the claim of the individual to his share of the benefit arising from his neighbors' discharge of their several duties.

The pleasures of self-approbation, together with the right cultivation of all our pleasures, require individual independence. Without independence men cannot become either wise, or useful, or happy.

Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.

Men may one day feel that they are partakers of a common nature, and that true freedom and perfect equity, like food and air, are pregnant with benefit to every constitution.

If there be such a thing as truth, it must infallibly be struck out by the collision of mind with mind.

Government was intended to suppress injustice, but it offers new occasions and temptations for the commission of it.

Government was intended to suppress injustice, but its effect has been to embody and perpetuate it.