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
The mind of a child is no less vagrant than his steps; it pursues the gossamer and flies from object to object, lawless and unconfined, and it is equally necessary to the development of his frame that his thoughts and his body should be free from fetters.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Childhood is a time for exploration and freedom in thought and action.
In this quote, William Godwin emphasizes the necessity of allowing children to think freely and explore their surroundings without constraints. Just as a child's body needs the freedom to move and develop, their mind requires the same liberty to wander and engage with the world around them, which is vital for their overall growth and development.
Themes
ChildFreedomMindDevelopmentExploration
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in an education seminar to emphasize the importance of creative teaching methods.
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!
William GodwinRead
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.
William GodwinRead
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.
William GodwinRead
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.
William GodwinRead
Extraordinary circumstances often bring along with them extraordinary strength. No man knows, till the experiment, what he is capable of effecting.
William GodwinRead
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