Scottish - Writer | September 6, 1795 - December 13, 1852
A necessary consequent of religious belief is the attaching ideas of merit to that belief, and of demerit to its absence.
Frances Wright
IdeasBeliefAbsenceNecessaryMerit
And when did mere preaching do any good? Put something in the place of these things. Fill the vacuum of the mind.
GoodMindPlaceVacuumSomething
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?
AttentionFeelingsLibertyHumanMay
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.
ManAnimalExerciseSingleMental
Look into the nature of things. Search out the grounds of your opinions, the for and against.
NatureSearchOpinionsLookOut
Man has been adjudged a social animal.
ManAnimalSocialBeen
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.
EthicsIdeasActionMoralsLoseNow
Speak of change, and the world is in alarm. And yet where do we not see change?
ChangeWorldSpeakSeeWhereAlarm
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.
NatureTimeSimpleWordsFactsUs
The existing principle of selfish interest and competition has been carried to its extreme point; and, in its progress, has isolated the heart of man, blunted the edge of his finest sensibilities, and annihilated all his most generous impulses and sympathies.
HeartProgressManCompetitionEdge
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.
OpinionsTeachNeverConformityPay
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.
TimePracticeMindPrejudiceBecome
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