Date of birth: 1795-00-00
Date of death: 1852-00-00
Quotes number: 15
Nationality: Scottish
Profession: Writer
All that I say is, examine, inquire. Look into the nature of things. Search out the grounds of your opinions, the for and against. Know why you believe, understand what you believe, and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.
Do we exert our own liberties without injury to others - we exert them justly; do we exert them at the expense of others - unjustly. And, in thus doing, we step from the sure platform of liberty upon the uncertain threshold of tyranny.
Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it.
How are men to be secured in any rights without instruction; how to be secured in the equal exercise of those rights without equality of instruction? By instruction understand me to mean knowledge - just knowledge; not talent, not genius, not inventive mental powers.
However novel it may appear, I shall venture the assertion, that, until women assume the place in society which good sense and good feeling alike assign to them, human improvement must advance but feebly.
I have been swamped with tremendous response. I am expecting a huge crowd.
If they exert it not for good, they will for evil; if they advance not knowledge, they will perpetuate ignorance.
If we bring not the good courage of minds covetous of truth, and truth only, prepared to hear all things, and decide upon all things, according to evidence, we should do more wisely to sit down contented in ignorance, than to bestir ourselves only to reap disappointment.
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.
Let us unite on the safe and sure ground of fact and experiment, and we can never err; yet better, we can never differ.
