“The political freedom of conscience and of the press, so far from being as it is commonly supposed an extension, is a new case of the limitation of rights and discretion. Conscience and the press ought to be unrestrained, not because men have a right to deviate from the exact line that duty prescribes, but because society, the aggregate of individuals, has no right to assume the prerogative of an infallible judge, and to undertake authoritatively to prescribe to its members in matters of pure speculation.”

— William Godwin

Principles of Society, The Rights of Man
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)

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William Godwin 36

English journalist, political philosopher and novelist 1756–1836

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