Frances Wright on Freedom
1795–1852 Scotland
← All quotes by Frances Wright
4 quotes
Is not an hereditary nobility inconsistent with liberty? I will ask more, is it not inconsistent with public virtue?
Letter (1820)
Liberty means, not the mere voting at elections, but the free and fearless exercise of the mental faculties, and that self-possession which springs out of well-reasoned opinions and consistent practice.
Independence Day speech (1828)
It is for Americans, more especially to nourish a nobler sentiment; one more consistent with their origin, and more conducive to their future improvement. It is for them more especially to know why they love their country, not because it is their country, but because it is the palladium of human liberty.
To give liberty to a slave before he understands its value is, perhaps, rather to impose a penalty than to bestow a blessing; but it is not clear to me that the southern planters are duly exerting themselves to prepare the way for that change in the condition of their black populations which they profess to think not only desirable but inevitable.