Quote

... 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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Frances Wright
Age: 57 †
Born: 1795
Born: September 6
Died: 1852
Died: December 13
Philosopher
Writer
City of Dundee
Frances D'Arusmont
Objects
Choose
Happiness
Free
Government
People
Rational
Object

More quotes by Frances Wright

Image
The simplest principles become difficult of practice, when habits, formed in error, have been fixed by time, and the simplest truths hard to receive when prejudice has warped the mind.
Frances Wright
Image
the mode of delivering a truth makes, for the most part, as much impression on the mind of the listener as the truth itself.
Frances Wright
Image
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.
Frances Wright
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
No man can see his own prejudices.
Frances Wright
Image
Do not confound noise with fame. The man who is remembered, is not always honored.
Frances Wright
Image
... 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.
Frances Wright
Image
the language of truth is too simple for inexperienced ears.
Frances Wright
Image
... a nation to be strong, must be united to be united, must be equal in condition to be equal in condition, must be similar inhabits and feeling to be similar in habits and feeling, must be raised in national institutions as the children of a common family, and citizens of a common country.
Frances Wright
Image
Persecution for opinion is the master vice of society.
Frances Wright
Image
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.
Frances Wright
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.
Frances Wright
Image
The knowledge of one generation is the ignorance of the next.
Frances Wright
Image
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
Image
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.
Frances Wright
Image
Moral truth, resting entirely upon the ascertained consequences of actions, supposes a process of observation and reasoning.
Frances Wright
Image
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.
Frances Wright
Image
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.
Frances Wright