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Religion may be defined thus: a belief in, and homage rendered to, existences unseen and causes unknown.

— Frances Wright A Course of Popular Lectures (1829)

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More quotes by Frances Wright

I have wedded the cause of human improvement, staked on it my fortune, my reputation and my life.

From the era which dates the national existence of the American people, dates also a mighty step in the march of human knowledge.

Independence Day speech (1828)

We detect … throughout the whole of things — in the operations of nature, of human society, and in those of our own internal percipient and sentient soul — two master energies.

An opinion, right or wrong, can never constitute a moral offense, nor be in itself a moral obligation. It may be mistaken; it may involve an absurdity, or a contradiction. It is a truth; or it is an error: it can never be a crime or a virtue.

A Few Days in Athens (1822)

The Virginians are said to pride themselves upon the peculiar tenderness with which they visit the sceptre of authority on their African vassals.

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All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England (1849)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Frances Wright (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.