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.

Wright argues that inquiry demands intellectual courage and a disciplined love of truth rather than comfort, party spirit, or preconceived conclusions. To seek knowledge while refusing to “hear all things” or to “decide…according to evidence” is, in her view, a self-defeating posture: it turns investigation into a performance that ends in frustration because the inquirer is not actually willing to be corrected. The sting of the closing contrast—better to remain contentedly ignorant than to pursue knowledge half-heartedly—underscores her Enlightenment-inflected commitment to free examination. The quote functions as both a warning against dogmatism and a call to adopt an evidence-based, open-minded ethic in politics, religion, and moral reform.