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 More Quotes by Frances Wright More Quotes From Frances Wright 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 admitting like-you understanding Religion may be defined thus: a belief in, and homage rendered to, existences unseen and causes unknown. Frances Wright unseen may religion 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 humans mind may Do not confound noise with fame. The man who is remembered, is not always honored. Frances Wright noise fame men 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 atheism errors imagination ... 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 government happiness people ... 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 ... 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 religious wise education 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 ignorance heart thinking 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 air science knowledge 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 wife husband father 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 equality exercise mean 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 imagination dream world 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 animal men the language of truth is too simple for inexperienced ears. Frances Wright simple truth ears 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 government dream country The condition of women affords in all countries the best criterion by which to judge the character of men. Frances Wright character men country ... 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 broken self men I am neither Jew nor Gentile, Mahomedan nor Theist; I am but a member of the human family. Frances Wright theist members jew Truth is but approved facts. Frances Wright truth-is truth facts
