"One principle, that I believe is wanting in you, and all our too fervent and impetuous reformers, is the thought, that almost every institution or form of society is good in its place, and in the period of time to which it belongs. How many beautiful and admirable effects grew out of Popery and the monastic institutions, in the period, when they were in their genuine health and vigour! To them we owe almost all our logic and our literature. What excellent effects do we reap, even at this day, from the feudal system and from chivalry! In this point of view, nothing can, perhaps, be more worthy of our applause than the English constitution."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Historians from EnglandAtheists from EnglandNovelists from EnglandPhilosophers from EnglandAnarchists
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Letter to Percy Bysshe Shelley (4 March 1812), quoted in Thomas Jefferson Hogg, The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. II (1858), p. 86
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Godwin
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
William Godwin
William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher, educationalist, novelist, historian and biographer. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism, and the first modern proponent of anarchism. He was the husband of Mary Wollstonecraft, father of Mary Shelley and father-in-law of Percy Bysshe Shelley.
50 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by William Godwin →
Related Quotes
"Mankind will never be, in an eminent degree, virtuous and happy till each man shall possess that portion of distincti…"
"Simplify the social system, in the manner which every motive, but those of usurpation and ambition, powerfully recomm…"
"Nothing can be of more importance than to separate prejudice and mistake on the one hand from reason and demonstratio…"
"Privilege is a regulation rendering a few men, and those only, by the accident of their birth, eligible to certain si…"
"The case of mere titles is so absurd that it would deserve to be treated only with ridicule were t not for the seriou…"
"Till mankind be satisfied with the naked statement of what they really perceive, till they confess virtue to be then …"
"Democracy is a system of government according to which every member of society is considered as a man and nothing more."
"Anarchy, in its own nature, is an evil of short duration. The more horrible are the mischiefs it inflicts, the more d…"
"It is false that kings are entitled to the eminence they obtain. They possess no intrinsic superiority over their sub…"
"The evil of marriage, as is it practiced in the European countries, extends further than we have yet described. The m…"