Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Frances Wright

Quote by Frances Wright

“... 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?”

Quote by Frances Wright

Create image

Author

Frances Wright
Frances Wright

Frances Wright was an American writer and social reformer, born on September 6, 1795, and died on December 13, 1852. She is known for her advocacy of women's rights, abolition of slavery, and socialist ideas. more

You May Also Like

“... so far from entrenching human conduct within the gentle barriers of peace and love, religion has ever been, and now is, the deepest source of contentions, wars, persecutions for conscience sake, angry words, angry feelings, backbitings, slanders, suspicions, false judgments, evil interpretations, unwise, unjust, injurious, inconsistent actions.”

HumansWarFeelingsActionReligionEvilSourceJudgmentConscienceAnd LoveAngrySakeGentleBarriersInterpretationSuspicionUnjustPersecutionSlanderInconsistentContentionPeace And LoveUnwiseAngry WordsAngry FeelingsBackbiting
Book: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
Create image

“... 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.”

PeopleBookReasonSpiritualCertainReligionTeacherAdviceDoctrineCensorshipSubmitCautionSuspiciousYou AgainClergyProfaneEnquirySpiritual TeachersCounsellors
Book:Course of popular lectures; with 3 addresses on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French reformers of 1789
Create image

“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.”

FirstsFactsScienceCertainReligionKnownKnowledgeAirEvidenceRaisesFoundationDataBranchesSensationsConstructsCastlesPremisesBuilderEdificeCastles In The Air
Author:Frances Wright
Create image

“... 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.”

PeopleGovernmentHappinessObjectsRational
Book:Course of popular lectures; with 3 addresses on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French reformers of 1789
Create image

“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.”

IfsMenWellsLongBookHandsPoliticalLeftReligiousHalfMoralTeacherIgnoranceCollegeGayPrejudiceGravesIncomeBreadServantDependentEditorsProfessorsInstructionJournalCompelledPublicationDaily Bread
Author:Frances Wright
Create image

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

GivingValuesFreedomLibertyBlessingSlaverySlavePenalties
Book: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
Create image

“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!”

IfsThinkingHeartSeemsOpinionBreakIgnoranceJudgingPrejudiceChainsReasonableConsiderationShrinksUnreasonableHead And HeartSacrilege
Book:Course of popular lectures
Create image