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 GodwinRead
As long as parents and teachers in general shall fall under the established rule, it is clear that politics and modes of government will educate and infect us all. They poison our minds, before we can resist, or so much as suspect their malignity. Like the barbarous directors of the Eastern seraglios, they deprive us of our vitality, and fit us for their despicable employment from the cradle.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques the ways in which political systems influence the education and mindset of individuals from a young age.
William Godwin's quote highlights the impact of political ideologies and government structures on education and personal development. He suggests that the systems create biases and limitations in thought, conditioning individuals to conform to societal expectations and roles. This process happens early in life, often without the individual's awareness, leading to a loss of personal freedom and vitality as they are shaped for specific purposes dictated by those in power.
Themes
EducationPoliticsMindInfluenceConditioning
In practice
Example use cases
A teacher discussing the role of education in shaping societal values can use this quote to illustrate their point.
More from William Godwin
All quotes →It is one of the oldest maxims of moral prudence: Do not, by aspiring to what is impracticable, lose the opportunity of doing the good you can effect!
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When the calamity we feared is already arrived, or when the expectation of it is so certain as to shut out hope, there seems to be a principle within us by which we look with misanthropic composure on the state to which we are reduced, and the heart sullenly contracts and accommodates itself to what it most abhorred.
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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.
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What are gold and jewels and precious utensils? Mere dross and dirt. The human face and the human heart, reciprocations of kindness and love, and all the nameless sympathies of our nature - these are the only objects worth being attached to.
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Extraordinary circumstances often bring along with them extraordinary strength. No man knows, till the experiment, what he is capable of effecting.
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