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 More Quotes by Frances Wright More Quotes From Frances Wright ... 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 surprise would-be impossible 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 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 ignorance country people Of the thousands who have paid homage to virtue, barely one has thought to inspect the pedestal on which it stands. Frances Wright pedestal paid virtue 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 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 religious teacher book 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 Speak of change, and the world is in alarm. And yet where do we not see change? Frances Wright see speak change world We have seen that no religion stands on the basis of things known; none bounds its horizon within the field of human observation; and, therefore, as it can never present us with indisputable facts, so must it ever be at once a source of error and contention. Frances Wright never horizon facts religion 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. Frances Wright wrong place look action Awaken its powers, and it will respect itself. Frances Wright awaken itself will respect A necessary consequent of religious belief is the attaching ideas of merit to that belief, and of demerit to its absence. Frances Wright merit belief absence ideas And when did mere preaching do any good? Put something in the place of these things. Fill the vacuum of the mind. Frances Wright place things good mind 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? Frances Wright human liberty feelings attention 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. Frances Wright will best equality foundation Man has been adjudged a social animal. Frances Wright been man social animal Now here is a departure from the first principle of true ethics. Here we find ideas of moral wrong and moral right associated with something else than beneficial action. The consequent is, we lose sight of the real basis of morals, and substitute a false one. Frances Wright lose ethics action ideas Surely it is time to examine into the meaning of words and the nature of things, and to arrive at simple facts, not received upon the dictum of learned authorities, but upon attentive personal observation of what is passing around us. Frances Wright words nature simple time The hired preachers of all sects, creeds, and religions, never do, and never can, teach any thing but what is in conformity with the opinions of those who pay them. Frances Wright religions opinions never teach We hear of the wealth of nations, of the powers of production, of the demand and supply of markets, and we forget that these words mean no more, if they mean any thing, then the happiness, and the labor, and the necessities of men. Frances Wright words forget happiness men
