Frances Wright Quotes

Quotes about:

• All that I say is, examine, inquire. Look into the nature of things. Search out the grounds of your opinions, the for and against. Know why you believe, understand what you believe, and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.

  Frances Wright

  Faith, Believe, Looks

  Frances Wright (1829). “Course of popular lectures; with 3 addresses on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French reformers of 1789”, p.45

  49 Copy quote

• Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it.

  Frances Wright

  Inspirational, Equality, Community

  Frances Wright (1829). “Course of popular lectures; with 3 addresses on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French reformers of 1789”, p.25

  32 Copy quote

• Equality! Where is it, if not in education? Equal rights! They cannot exist without equality of instruction.

  Frances Wright

  Rights, Justice, Diversity

  Frances Wright (1829). “Course of popular lectures; with 3 addresses on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French reformers of 1789”, p.25

  11 Copy quote

• We are on the earth, and they tell us of heaven; we are human beings, and they tell us of angels and devils; we are matter, and they tell us of spirit; we have five senses whereby to admit truths, and a reasoning faculty by which to build our belief upon them; and they tell us of dreams dreamed thousands of years ago, which our experience flatly contradicts.

  Frances Wright

  Dream, Angel, Years

  Frances Wright (1829). “Course of popular lectures; with 3 addresses on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French reformers of 1789”, p.45

  17 Copy quote

• it is not that religion is merely useless, it is mischievous. It is mischievous by its idle terrors; it is mischievous by its false morality; it is mischievous by its hypocrisy; by its fanaticism; by its dogmatism; by its threats; by its hopes; by its promises.

  Frances Wright

  Hypocrisy, Promise, Useless

  Frances Wright (1850). “A few days in Athens: being the translation of a Greek manuscript discovered in Herculaneum”, p.203

  11 Copy quote

• I am neither Jew nor Gentile, Mohammedan nor Theist; I am but a member of the human family, and would accept of truth by whomsoever offered -- that truth which we can all find, if we will but seek in things, not in words; in nature, not in human imagination; in our own hearts, not in temples made with hands.

  Frances Wright

  Heart, Hands, Imagination

  18 Copy quote

• ... a nation to be strong, must be united; to be united, must be equal in condition; to be equal in condition, must be similar inhabits and feeling; to be similar in habits and feeling, must be raised in national institutions as the children of a common family, and citizens of a common country.

  Frances Wright

  Country, Strong, Children

  12 Copy quote

• Trust me, there are as many ways of living as there are men, and one is no more fit to lead another, than a bird to lead a fish, or a fish a quadruped.

  Frances Wright

  Leadership, Men, Bird

  Frances Wright (1831). “A Few Days in Athens: Being the Translation of a Greek Manuscript Discovered in Herculaneum”, p.112

  8 Copy quote

• Do not confound noise with fame. The man who is remembered, is not always honored.

  Frances Wright

  Men, Noise, Fame

  7 Copy quote

• Credulity is always a ridiculous, often a dangerous failing: it has made of many a clever man, a fool; and of many a good man, a knave.

  Frances Wright

  Clever, Men, Good Man

  Frances Wright (1831). “A Few Days in Athens: Being the Translation of a Greek Manuscript Discovered in Herculaneum”, p.31

  31 Copy quote

• What were the glories of the sun, if we knew not the gloom of darkness?

  Frances Wright

  Darkness, Sun, Glory

  Frances Wright (1831). “A Few Days in Athens: Being the Translation of a Greek Manuscript Discovered in Herculaneum”, p.94

  4 Copy quote

• Turn your churches into halls of science, and devote your leisure day to the study of your own bodies, the analysis of your own minds, and the examination of the fair material world which extends around you!

  Frances Wright

  Mind, Church, Leisure

  Frances Wright (1829). “Course of popular lectures; with 3 addresses on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French reformers of 1789”, p.46

  13 Copy quote

• The world is full of religion, and full of misery and crime.

  Frances Wright

  World, Misery, Crime

  Frances Wright (1850). “A few days in Athens: being the translation of a Greek manuscript discovered in Herculaneum”, p.202

  4 Copy quote

• Instead of establishing facts, we have to overthrow errors; instead of ascertaining what is, we have to chase from our imaginations what is not.

  Frances Wright

  Errors, Imagination, Atheism

  Frances Wright (1829). “Course of popular lectures”, p.65

  9 Copy quote

• Religion may be defined thus: a belief in, and homage rendered to, existences unseen and causes unknown.

  Frances Wright

  Religion, Unseen, May

  Frances Wright (1829). “Course of popular lectures; with 3 addresses on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French reformers of 1789”, p.73

  7 Copy quote

• Opinions are not to be learned by rote, like the letters of an alphabet, or the words of a dictionary. They are conclusions to be formed, and formed by each individual in the sacred and free citadel of the mind, and there enshrined beyond the arm of law to reach, or force to shake; ay! and beyond the right of impertinent curiosity to violate, or presumptuous arrogance to threaten.

  Frances Wright

  Law, Arrogance, Curiosity

  Frances Wright (1831). “Course of Popular Lectures,”, p.132

  7 Copy quote

• ... so far from entrenching human conduct within the gentle barriers of peace and love, religion has ever been, and now is, the deepest source of contentions, wars, persecutions for conscience sake, angry words, angry feelings, backbitings, slanders, suspicions, false judgments, evil interpretations, unwise, unjust, injurious, inconsistent actions.

  Frances Wright

  War, Evil, Feelings

  Frances Wright (1829). “Course of popular lectures as delivered by Frances Wright: with three addresses on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French reformers of 1789. Second edition”, p.107

  8 Copy quote

• the mode of delivering a truth makes, for the most part, as much impression on the mind of the listener as the truth itself.

  Frances Wright

  Truth, Mind, Impression

  Frances Wright (1822). “A Few Days in Athens: Being the Translation of a Greek Manuscript Discovered in Herculaneum”, p.21

  7 Copy quote

• Moral truth, resting entirely upon the ascertained consequences of actions, supposes a process of observation and reasoning.

  Frances Wright

  Morality, Action, Process

  Frances Wright (1850). “A few days in Athens: being the translation of a Greek manuscript discovered in Herculaneum”, p.176

  9 Copy quote

• These will vary in every human being; but knowledge is the same for every mind, and every mind may and ought to be trained to receive it.

  Frances Wright

  Mind, May, Humans

  Frances Wright (1829). “Course of Popular Lectures”, p.48

  8 Copy quote

• He who lives in the single exercise of his mental faculties, however usefully or curiously directed, is equally an imperfect animal with the man who knows only the exercise of muscles.

  Frances Wright

  Exercise, Men, Animal

  7 Copy quote

• The knowledge of one generation is the ignorance of the next.

  Frances Wright

  Ignorance, Generations, Next

  Frances Wright (1850). “A few days in Athens: being the translation of a Greek manuscript discovered in Herculaneum”, p.204

  5 Copy quote

• Pets, like their owners, tend to expand a little over the Christmas period.

  Frances Wright

  Christmas, Pet, Littles

  9 Copy quote

• Knowledge signifies things known. Where there are no things known, there is no knowledge. Where there are no things to be known, there can be no knowledge. We have observed that every science, that is, every branch of knowledge, is compounded of certain facts, of which our sensations furnish the evidence. Where no such evidence is supplied, we are without data; we are without first premises; and when, without these, we attempt to build up a science, we do as those who raise edifices without foundations. And what do such builders construct? Castles in the air.

  Frances Wright

  Knowledge, Science, Air

  7 Copy quote

• Be not afraid! In admitting a creator, refuse not to examine his creation; and take not the assertions of creatures like yourselves, in place of the evidence of your senses and the conviction of your understanding.

  Frances Wright

  Understanding, Admitting, Like You

  Frances Wright (1829). “Course of popular lectures; with 3 addresses on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French reformers of 1789”, p.45

  6 Copy quote

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