19 quotes
Human freedom and true democracy are identical.
Speech at the National Convention of the Women’s National Loyal League (1863)
In proportion to power is responsibility.
Address to the First Anniversary of the American Equal Rights Association (1867)
superstition in fashion is always called religion, till the religion becomes out of fashion-then it again changes back into superstition.
But the Bible, we are told, reveals this great mystery. Where Nature is dumb, and Man ignorant, Revelation speaks in the authoritative voice of prophecy.
A Defence of Atheism (1861)
Each in accordance with her abilities and powers - all for the good of Humanity.
Speech at the Thomas Paine Celebration (1850)
Loyal means to be true to one's highest conviction...If we are loyal to our highest convictions, we need not care how far it may lead. For truth, like water, will find its own level.
A small republic, a small nation, based upon the eternal principle of freedom, is great and powerful. A large empire based upon slavery, is weak and without foundation. The moment the light of freedom shines upon it, it discloses its defects, and unmasks its hideous deformities.
There is enough to do for all. In gratitude to the past we owe a duty to the future. Let every one, then, be true to his highest convictions, and faithful to the cause of human progress. Truth is the highest aim in principle, and goodness the noblest object in practice.
Mathematics lays the foundation of all the exact sciences. It teaches the art of combining numbers, of calculating and measuring distances, how to solve problems, to weigh mountains, to fathom the depths of the ocean; but gives no directions how to ascertain the existence of a God.
A Defence of Atheism (1861)
We have been told, to-day, that it was a woman that agitated Great Britain to its very centre, before emancipation could be effected in her colonies. Woman must go hand in hand with man in every great and noble cause, if success would be insured.
Speech at the Anniversary of West Indian Emancipation (1853)
justice, like charity, must begin at home.
Speech at the National Convention of the Women’s National Loyal League (1863)
I suppose you all grant that woman is a human being. If she has a right to life she has a right to earn a support for that life. If a human being, she has a right to have her powers and faculties as a human being developed. If developed, she has a right to exercise them.
…There is ten times more in the world than would maintain all in yet unknown luxury. Yet how much misery there is in our midst; not because there is not enough, but owing to the misdirection of it.
I ask for a law of Divorce…to prevent the crimes and immoralities now practiced…too often under the name of marriage…I believe in true marriages, and therefore I ask for a law to free men and women from false ones.
Astronomy tells us of the wonders of the Solar System—the eternally revolving planets, the rapidity and certainty of their motions, the distance from planet to planet, from star to star. It predicts with astonishing and marvellous precision the phenomena of eclipses, the visibility upon our Earth of comets, and proves the immutable law of gravitation, but is entirely silent on the existence of a God.
A Defence of Atheism (1861)
It was a great mistake to say that God made man in his image. Man, in all ages, made his God in his own image; and we find that just in accordance with his civilization, his knowledge, his experience, his taste, his refinement, his sense of right, of justice, of freedom, and humanity,—so has he made his God. But whether coarse or refined; cruel and vindictive, or kind and generous; an implacable tyrant, or a gentle and loving father;—it still was the emanation of his own mind—the picture of himself.
A Defence of Atheism (1861)
thirty or forty years ago, the press was not sufficiently educated in the rights of women, even to notice, much less to report speeches as it does now
The Universe of Matter gives us no record of his existence. Where next shall we search? Enter the Universe of Mind, read the millions of volumes written on the subject, and in all the speculations, the assertions, the assumptions, the theories, and the creeds, you can only find Man stamped in an indelible impress his own mind on every page. In describing his God, he delineated his own character: the picture he drew represents in living and ineffaceable colors the epoch of his existence—the period he lived in.
A Defence of Atheism (1861)
we have asked Congress, in the reconstruction of the Republic, to place it upon a sound foundation.
Address to the First Anniversary of the American Equal Rights Association (1867)