William Godwin Quotes

As we ascend the social ladder, viciousness wears a thicker mask.

It's always good to remind yourself of how awful people can be, even when they seem to be projecting kindness.

Great affectation and great absence of it are at first sight very similar.

Everybody was up to something, especially, of course, those who were up to nothing.

The true value of somebody in this town is very hard to determine. It's all smoke and mirrors.

There is an assumption that if you're young and pretty, you will get all these opportunities that are way beyond your musical foundation.

You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality.

There are people who laugh to show their fine teeth; and there are those who cry to show their good hearts.

If education does not create a need for the best in life, then we are stuck in an undemocratic, rigid caste society.

A wit should be no more sincere than a woman constant.

Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.

My feeling is, having lived in different classes, that people want equality of opportunity... that's the thing that makes me despair: the idea that people aren't given equality of opportunity.

You never see what you want to see, forever playing to the gallery.

Style equals pretense.

On the battlefield, there is no distinction between upper and lower class.

It's them that take advantage that get advantage in this world.

The curse of the human race is not that we are so different from each other, but that we are so alike.

To try to make men equal by altering social arrangements is like trying to make the cards of equal value by shuffling the pack.

The typical white intellectual considers himself superior to ordinary white people for two contradictory reasons: a) he constantly proclaims belief in human equality, but they don't ; b) he has a high IQ, but they don't.

We live in a system that espouses merit, equality, and a level playing field, but exalts those with wealth, power, and celebrity, however gained.

You can be dressed the best and have a wicked heart.

I am not arguing for a utopian society; equal opportunity for all, though ideal, is unrealistic.

I don't think of people as black or white. It's a question of are they photogenic or not? I don't think anyone says, 'Let's book her. She's black.' I think they say, 'Let's book her. She's good.' We've come that far.

Fine dressing is a foule house swept before the doores.

Gratitude and treachery are merely the two extremities of the same procession. You have seen all of it that is worth staying for when the band and the gaudy officials have gone by.