William Godwin Quotes
To conceive that compulsion and punishment are the proper means of reformation is the sentiment of a barbarian.
Godwin, William. An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness. G.G.J. and J. Robinson, 1793.
Most prisons of that age not only incarcerated the prisoners but also beat and tortured them and kept them in unsanitary and unsafe facilities. Pedro I was an incredibly modern man regarding prison reform and was years ahead of his time even by European standards.
Head of the Sikh Religion. None of his predecessors had used arms, but he not only did so but often wore two swords representing the spiritual and civil domains.
He is remembered today as the "Hanging Judge" of the American Old West. See {640210}.
Most people reading this think at first that if comes out of the Middle Ages, but it is quite contemporary expressing a point of view that holds that the state is but the instrument of and subservient to God as defined by Protestant Fundamentalism.
He sounds here like a modern left-wing prison reform candidate. However, in {614901} he sounds like a modern right wing conservative. Smith had written to most of the then likely Presidential candidates of both major parties asking for their position on the Mormons who were facing persecution wherever they went. None of the politicians would make any satisfactory commitments. Smith took Direct Action and became the only major religious official to have run for the Presidency of the United States until Pat Robertson tried and failed in 2000. Smith’s assassination shortly thereafter cut his run for the Presidency short before it made much headway and politically he had no chance to affect the race.
The culture of Iraq and the Desert tribes made raiding and looting of other villages or travelers or caravans a way of life. The British occupiers were determined to put an end to it and Harris, a young officer, developed the retaliation of bombing the village of the raiders and their warlords. This appears to be the beginning of destroying of houses in the Middle East as a method of retaliation and punishment which would be adopted so well by the Israelis as a humane method and they often quoted Harris saying: “we put them to the maximum amount of inconvenience, without physical hurt, and they soon stopped their raiding and looting.”
This statement was made long after slavery had been abolished and Jim Crow was on the rise in the South.
William Godwin was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous for two books that he published within the space of a year: An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, an attack on political institutions, and Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams, an early mystery novel which attacks aristocratic privilege. Based on the success of both, Godwin featured prominently in the radical circles of London in the 1790s. He wrote prolifically in the genres of novels, history and demography throughout his life.
