“Anarchy, in its own nature, is an evil of short duration. The more horrible are the mischiefs it inflicts, the more does it hasten to a close.”

Book 7, Ch. 5
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)

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William Godwin 36
English journalist, political philosopher and novelist 1756–1836

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“Historical communities are, in short, more deeply involved in nature and time than the individual.”

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Context: The brotherhood of the community is indeed the ground in which the individual is ethically realized. But the community is the frustration as well as the realization of individual life. Its collective egotism is an offense to his conscience; its institutional injustices negate the ideal of justice; and such brotherhood as it achieves is limited by ethnic and geographic boundaries. Historical communities are, in short, more deeply involved in nature and time than the individual.

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