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By right, as the word is employed in this subject, has always been understood discretion, that is, a full and complete power of either doing a thing or omitting it, without the person's becoming liable to animadversion or censure from another, that is, in other words, without his incurring any degree of turpitude or guilt. now in this sense i affirm that man has no rights, no discretionary power whatever.
-William Godwin
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By Right, As The Word Is Employed

William Godwin
By right, as the word is employed in this subject, has always been understood discretion, that is, a full and complete power of either doing a thing or omitting it, without the person's becoming liable to animadversion or censure from another, that is, in other words, without his incurring any degree of turpitude or guilt. now in this sense i affirm that man has no rights, no discretionary power whatever.
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Men Rights Guilt

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We hear in these days a great deal respecting rights--the rights of private judgment, the rights of labor, the rights of property, and the rights of man. rights are grand things, divine things in this world of god's; but the way in which we expound these rights, alas! seems to me to be the very incarnation of selfishness. i can see nothing very noble in a man who is forever going about calling for his own rights. alas! alas! for the man who feels nothing more grand in this wondrous, divine world than his own rights.
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Though this motion for a new trial is an application to the discretion of the court, it must be remembered that the discretion to be exercised on such an occasion is not a wild but a sound discretion, and to be confined within those limits within which an honest man, competent to discharge the duties of his office, ought to confine himself. and that discretion will be best exercised by not deviating from the rules laid down by our predecessors; for the practice of the court forms the law of the court.
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If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent if the unheard, unspoken word is unspoken, unheard; still is the spoken word, the word unheard, the word without a word, the word within the world and for the world; and the light shone in the darkness and against the word the unstilled world still whirled about the center of the silent word. oh my people, what have i done unto thee. where shall the word be found, where shall the word resound? not here, there is not enough silence
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Courts are the mere instruments of the law, and can will nothing. when they are said to exercise a discretion, it is a mere legal discretion, a discretion to be exercised in discerning the course prescribed by law; and, when that is discerned, it is the duty of the court to follow it. judicial power is never exericised for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the judge; always for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the legislature; or, in other words, to the will of the law.
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Good work is no done by "humble" men. it is one of the first duties of a professor, for example, in any subject, to exaggerate a little both the importance of his subject and his own importance in it. a man who is always asking "is what i do worth while?" and "am i the right person to do it?" will always be ineffective himself and a discouragement to others. he must shut his eyes a little and think a little more of his subject and himself than they deserve. this is not too difficult: it is harder not to make his subject and himself ridiculous by shutting his eyes too tightly.
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The right to life is the source of all rights -- and the right to property is their only implementation. without property rights, no other rights are possible. since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. the man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave.
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