Frances Wright Quotes - Page 3

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• Persecution for opinion is the master vice of society.

  Frances Wright

  Vices, Speech, Opinion

  Frances Wright (1829). “Course of Popular Lectures”, p.128

  9 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.

  Frances Wright

  Power, Race, Important

  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

• Many are called impious, not for having a worse, but a different religion from their neighbors; and many atheistical, not for the denying of God, but for thinking somewhat peculiarly concerning him.

  Frances Wright

  Thinking, Different, Neighbor

  Frances Wright (1822). “A Few Days in Athens: Being the Translation of a Greek Manuscript Discovered in Herculaneum”, p.11

  4 Copy quote

• The sciences have ever been the surest guides to virtue.

  Frances Wright

  Virtue, Guides

  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.78

  7 Copy quote

• An opinion, right or wrong, can never constitute a moral offense, nor be in itself a moral obligation. It may be mistaken; it may involve an absurdity, or a contradiction. It is a truth; or it is an error: it can never be a crime or a virtue.

  Frances Wright

  Errors, May, Opinion

  Frances Wright (1850). “A few days in Athens: being the translation of a Greek manuscript discovered in Herculaneum”, p.166

  4 Copy quote

• There is but one honest limit to the rights of a sentient being; it is where they touch the rights of another sentient being.

  Frances Wright

  Rights, Limits, Honest

  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.27

  7 Copy quote

• The condition of women affords in all countries the best criterion by which to judge the character of men.

  Frances Wright

  Country, Character, Men

  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.423

  4 Copy quote

• It is singular to look round upon a country where the dreams of sages, smiled at as utopian, seem distinctly realized, a people voluntarily submitting to laws of their own imposing, with arms in their hands respecting the voice of a government which their breath created and which their breath could in a moment destroy!

  Frances Wright

  Dream, Country, Government

  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.362

  4 Copy quote

• ... it would be impossible for women to stand in higher estimation than they do here. The deference that is paid to them at all times and in all places has often occasioned me as much surprise as pleasure.

  Frances Wright

  Would Be, Impossible, Surprise

  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.312

  4 Copy quote

• There is a vulgar persuasion, that the ignorance of women, by favoring their subordination, ensures their utility. 'Tis the same argument employed by the ruling few against the subject many in aristocracies; by the rich against the poor in democracies; by the learned professions against the people in all countries.

  Frances Wright

  Country, Ignorance, People

  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.55

  4 Copy quote

• To give liberty to a slave before he understands its value is, perhaps, rather to impose a penalty than to bestow a blessing.

  Frances Wright

  Freedom, Blessing, Giving

  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.518

  4 Copy quote

• Do we exert our own liberties without injury to others - we exert them justly; do we exert them at the expense of others - unjustly. And, in thus doing, we step from the sure platform of liberty upon the uncertain threshold of tyranny.

  Frances Wright

  Liberty, Steps, Injury

  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.27

  7 Copy quote

• So long as the mental and moral instruction of man is left solely in the hands of hired servants of the public--let them be teachers of religion, professors of colleges, authors of books, or editors of journals or periodical publications, dependent upon their literary incomes for their daily bread, so long shall we hear but half the truth; and well if we hear so much. Our teachers, political, scientific, moral, or religious; our writers, grave or gay, are compelled to administer to our prejudices and to perpetuate our ignorance.

  Frances Wright

  Teacher, Religious, Book

  4 Copy quote

• Of the thousands who have paid homage to virtue, barely one has thought to inspect the pedestal on which it stands.

  Frances Wright

  Pedestal, Virtue, Paid

  4 Copy quote

• ... we have broken down the self-respecting spirit of man with nursery tales and priestly threats, and we dare to assert, that inproportion as we have prostrated our understanding and degraded our nature, we have exhibited virtue, wisdom, and happiness, in our words, our actions, and our lives!

  Frances Wright

  Men, Self, Broken

  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.115

  4 Copy quote

• I never walked through the streets of any city with as much satisfaction as those of Philadelphia. The neatness and cleanliness of all animate and inanimate things, houses, pavements, and citizens, is not to be surpassed.

  Frances Wright

  Cities, Philadelphia, House

  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.83

  4 Copy quote

• However novel it may appear, I shall venture the assertion, that, until women assume the place in society which good sense and good feeling alike assign to them, human improvement must advance but feebly.

  Frances Wright

  Women, House, Feelings

  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

• I am neither Jew nor Gentile, Mahomedan nor Theist; I am but a member of the human family.

  Frances Wright

  Members, Jew, Theist

  Frances Wright (1829). “Course of Popular Lectures”, p.148

  4 Copy quote

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