... until women assume the place in society which good sense and good feeling alike assign to them, human improvement must advance... but feebly. 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. Are they cultivated?--so is society polished and enlightened. Are they ignorant?--so is it gross and insipid. Are they wise?--so is the human condition prosperous. Are they foolish? So is it unstable and unpromising. Are they free?--so is the human character elevated. Are they enslaved?--so is the whole race degraded.... Man will ever rise or fall to the level of the other sex ...LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is a vulgar persuasion, that the ignorance of women, by favoring their subordination, ensures their utility. 'Tis the same a...rgument 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.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... we have broken down the self-respecting spirit of man with nursery tales and priestly threats, and we dare to assert, that in ...proportion 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!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If we bring not the good courage of minds covetous of truth, and truth only, prepared to hear all things, and decide upon all thin...gs, according to evidence, we should do more wisely to sit down contented in ignorance, than to bestir ourselves only to reap disappointment.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If Jesus, or his likeness, should now visit the earth, what church of the many which now go by his name would he enter? Or, if tem...pted by curiosity, he should incline to look into all, which do you think would not shut the door in his face?... It seems to me ... that as one who loved peace, taught industry, equality, union, and love, one towards another, Jesus were he alive at this day, would recommend you to come out of your churches of faith, and to gather into schools of knowledge.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... the yearly expenses of the existing religious system ... exceed in these United States twenty millions of dollars. Twenty mill...ions! 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?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Jesus would recommend you to pass the first day of the week rather otherwise than you pass it now, and to seek some other mode of ...bettering the morals of the community than by constraining each other to look grave on a Sunday, and to consider yourselves more virtuous in proportion to the idleness in which you pass one day in seven.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Weak as we are, compared to the health strength we are conscious would be desirable; ignorant as we are, compared to the height, a...nd breadth, and depth of knowledge which extends around us as far as the universal range of matter itself; miserable as we are, compared to the happiness of which we feel ourselves capable; yet in this living principle we see nothing beyond or above us, nothing to which we or our descendants may not attain, of great, of beautiful, of excellent. But to feel the power of this mighty principle, to urge it forward in its course and accelerate the change in our condition which it promises, we must awaken to its observation.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The man possessed of a dollar, feels himself to be not merely one hundred cents richer, but also one hundred cents better, than th...e man who is penniless; so on through all the gradations of earthly possessions--the estimate of our own moral and political importance swelling always in a ratio exactly proportionate to the growth of our purse.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... so far from entrenching human conduct within the gentle barriers of peace and love, religion has ever been, and now is, the de...epest source of contentions, wars, persecutions for conscience sake, angry words, angry feelings, backbitings, slanders, suspicions, false judgments, evil interpretations, unwise, unjust, injurious, inconsistent actions.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »