Quotes from Frances Wright

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

Our religious belief usurps the place of our sensations, our imaginations of our judgment. We no longer look to actions, trace their consequences, and then deduce the rule; we first make the rule, and then, right or wrong, force the action to square with it.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

If they exert it not for good, they will for evil if they advance not knowledge, they will perpetuate ignorance.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

But while human liberty has engaged the attention of the enlightened, and enlisted the feelings of the generous of all civilized nations, may we not enquire if this liberty has been rightly understood?

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.

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

It will appear evident upon attentive consideration that equality of intellectual and physical advantages is the only sure foundation of liberty, and that such equality may best, and perhaps only, be obtained by a union of interests and cooperation in labor.

Let us unite on the safe and sure ground of fact and experiment, and we can never err; yet better, we can never differ.

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

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

Look into the nature of things. Search out the grounds of your opinions, the for and against.

And when did mere preaching do any good? Put something in the place of these things. Fill the vacuum of the mind.

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.