“Power without righteousness is one of the most dangerous forces in the…” — Frances E. W. Harper | V2Melody

“Power without righteousness is one of the most dangerous forces in the world.”

A concise warning that power becomes dangerous when separated from moral responsibility. · Speech, Woman's Political Future, 1893

Frances E. W. Harper

About Frances E. W. Harper

Frances E. W. Harper

24 September 1825–22 February 1911

In the rich tapestry of nineteenth-century American literature and reform, few figures shine as brightly—or with as enduring a flame—as Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Born into freedom yet forged in the fires of racial injustice, she emerged as a poet of profound moral vision, a tireless abolitionist lecturer, a…

More by Frances E. W. Harper

Poems by Frances E. W. Harper

More remarks by Frances E. W. Harper

“As mind is more than matter, and the highest ideal always the true real, so to woman comes the opportunity to strive for richer and grander discoveries than ever gladdened the eye of the Genoese mariner.”

She shifts the idea of discovery from geography to intellectual and moral possibility. · Speech, Woman's Political Future, 1893

“We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul.”

A powerful expression of human solidarity and the moral cost of oppression · Speech, We Are All Bound Up Together (1866)

Hope
Truth

“If the fifteenth century discovered America to the Old World, the nineteenth is discovering woman to herself.”

A memorable comparison between geographical discovery and women's awakening sense of possibility. · Speech, Woman's Political Future, 1893