Frances Wright Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

Atheism Country Dreams Equality Evidence Evil Feelings

The simplest principles become difficult of practice, when habits, formed in error, have been fixed by time, and the simplest truths hard to receive when prejudice has warped the mind.

Frances Wright

Errors, Practice, Mind

4 Copy quote
You have heard of, and studied various systems of philosophy; but real philosophy is opposed to all systems.

Frances Wright

Philosophy, Real, Heard

Frances Wright (1850). “A few days in Athens: being the translation of a Greek manuscript discovered in Herculaneum”, p.171

4 Copy quote
Truth is but approved facts.

Frances Wright

Truth, Facts, Truth Is

Frances Wright (1850). “A few days in Athens: being the translation of a Greek manuscript discovered in Herculaneum”, p.175

4 Copy quote
Credulity is always ridiculous.

Frances Wright

Ridiculous, Credulity

7 Copy quote
I shall say, that I feel myself virtuous, because my soul is at rest.

Frances Wright

Soul, Ease, Virtuous

"A few days in Athens".

7 Copy quote
The man possessed of a dollar, feels himself to be not merely one hundred cents richer, but also one hundred cents better, than the man who is penniless; so on through all the gradations of earthly possessions - the estimate of our own moral and political importance swelling always in a ratio exactly proportionate to the growth of our purse.

Frances Wright

Men, Political, Growth

4 Copy quote
Love of power more frequently originates in vanity than pride (two qualities, by the way, which are often confounded) and is, consequently, yet more peculiarly the sin of little than of great minds.

Frances Wright

Pride, Power, Vanity

Frances Wright (1821). “Views of society and manners in America: in a series of letters from that country to a friend in England, during the years 1818, 1819, and 1820”, p.426

7 Copy quote
No man can see his own prejudices.

Frances Wright

Men, Prejudice

Frances Wright (1822). “A Few Days in Athens: Being the Translation of a Greek Manuscript Discovered in Herculaneum”, p.9

4 Copy quote
If we bring not the good courage of minds covetous of truth, and truth only, prepared to hear all things, and decide upon all things, according to evidence, we should do more wisely to sit down contented in ignorance, than to bestir ourselves only to reap disappointment.

Frances Wright

Courage, Disappointment, Ignorance

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.31

7 Copy quote
We have ... dreamed so much and observed so little, that our imaginations have grown larger than the world we live in, and our judgments have dwindled down to a point.

Frances Wright

Dream, Imagination, World

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.41

7 Copy quote
The existing principle of selfish interest and competition has been carried to its extreme point; and, in its progress, has isolated the heart of man, blunted the edge of his finest sensibilities, and annihilated all his most generous impulses and sympathies.

Frances Wright

Selfish, Stupid, Heart

Frances Wright (1850). “Fanny Wright Unmasked by Her Own Pen: Explanatory Notes, Respecting the Nature and Objects of the Institution of Nashoba, and of the Principles Upon Which It Is Founded”, p.5

4 Copy quote
... your spiritual teachers caution you against enquiry--tell you not to read certain books; not to listen to certain people; to beware of profane learning; to submit your reason, and to receive their doctrines for truths. Such advice renders them suspicious counsellors.

Frances Wright

Spiritual, Teacher, Book

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
... the happiness of a people is the only rational object of government, and the only object for which a people, free to choose, can have a government at all.

Frances Wright

Happiness, Government, People

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.122

9 Copy quote
the leading error of the human mind, - the bane of human happiness - the perverter of human virtue ... is Religion - that dark coinage of trembling ignorance! It is Religion - that poisoner of human felicity! It is Religion - that blind guide of human reason! It is Religion - that dethroner of human virtue! which lies at the root of all the evil and all the misery that pervade the world!

Frances Wright

Lying, Ignorance, Dark

4 Copy quote
... the yearly expenses of the existing religious systemexceed in these United States twenty millions of dollars. Twenty millions! For teaching what? Things unseen and causes unknown!... Twenty millions would more than suffice to make us wise; and alas! do they not more than suffice to make us foolish?

Frances Wright

Education, Wise, Religious

6 Copy quote
How prone we are to come to the consideration of every question with heads and hearts pre-occupied! How prone to shrink from any opinion, however reasonable, if it be opposed to any, however unreasonable, of our own! How disposed are we to judge, in anger, those who call upon us to think, and encourage us to enquire! To question our prejudices seems nothing less than sacrilege; to break the chains of our ignorance, nothing short of impiety!

Frances Wright

Heart, Ignorance, Thinking

Frances Wright (1829). “Course of Popular Lectures”, p.32

6 Copy quote
It is in vain that we would circumscribe the power of one half of our race, and that half by far the most important and influential. If they exert it not for good, they will for evil; if they advance not knowledge, they will perpetuate ignorance. Let women stand where they may in the scale of improvement, their position decides that of the race.

Frances Wright

Ignorance, Race, Evil

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.24

4 Copy quote
Fathers and husbands! do ye not also understand this fact? Do ye not see how, in the mental bondage of your wives and fair companions, ye yourselves are bound?

Frances Wright

Husband, Father, Wife

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.39

6 Copy quote
How are men to be secured in any rights without instruction; how to be secured in the equal exercise of those rights without equality of instruction? By instruction understand me to mean knowledge - just knowledge; not talent, not genius, not inventive mental powers.

Frances Wright

Mean, Exercise, Equality

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.26

6 Copy quote
The best road to correct reasoning is by physical science; the way to trace effects to causes is through physical science; the only corrective, therefore, of superstition is physical science.

Frances Wright

Science, Superstitions, Way

Frances Wright (1829). “Course of popular lectures”, p.66

7 Copy quote
the language of truth is too simple for inexperienced ears.

Frances Wright

Truth, Simple, Ears

Frances Wright (1850). “A few days in Athens: being the translation of a Greek manuscript discovered in Herculaneum”, p.169

4 Copy quote
It was in this year, 1828, that the standard of "the Christian Party in Politics" was openly unfurled... This was an evident attempt, through the influence of the clergy over the female mind - until this hour lamentably neglected in the United States - to effect a union of Church and State.

Frances Wright

Christian, Party, Years

4 Copy quote
It has already been observed that women, wherever placed, however high or low in the scale of cultivation, hold the destinies of human kind. Men will ever rise or fall to the level of the other sex.

Frances Wright

Sex, Fall, Destiny

Frances Wright, Cairns Collection of American Women Writers (1834*). “Course of popular lectures: with three addresses, on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French reformers of 1789”

4 Copy quote
I dare say you marvel sometimes at my independent way of walking through the world just as if nature had made me of your sex instead of poor Eve's. Trust me, my beloved friend, the mind has no sex but what habit and education give it, and I who was thrown in infancy upon the world like a wreck upon the waters have learned, as well to struggle with the elements as any male child of Adam.

Frances Wright

Sex, Children, Struggle

Letter to Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, on February 11, 1822. "Lafayette in Two Worlds" by Lloyd Kramer, p. 158, 1996.

4 Copy quote
Let us enquire. Who, then, shall challenge the words? Why are they challenged. And by whom? By those who call themselves the guardians of morality, and who are the constituted guardians of religion. Enquiry, it seems, suits not them. They have drawn the line, beyond which human reason shall not pass -- above which human virtue shall not aspire! All that is without their faith or above their rule, is immorality, is atheism, is -- I know not what.

Frances Wright

Challenges, Atheism, Suits

4 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Margaret Fuller

Robert Dale Owen

Sarah Moore Grimke

Frances Trollope

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Frances Wright

Follow

Born: September 6, 1795
Died: December 13, 1852
Occupation: Writer
Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics