Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes

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I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Life, Strong Women, Independent

"The original suffragette: the extraordinary Mary Wollstonecraft" by Bee Rowlatt, www.theguardian.com. October 5, 2015.

120 Copy quote
The more equality there is established among men, the more virtue and happiness will reign in society.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Equality, Men, Reign

Mary Wollstonecraft (2013). “Vindication of the Rights of Women”, p.12, Lulu.com

54 Copy quote
Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Women, Mother And Daughter, Mind

1792 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, pt.1, ch.2.

43 Copy quote
The beginning is always today.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Inspiring, New Beginnings, Divorce

65 Copy quote
Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify prejudices...rather than to root them out.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Men, Roots, Justice

1792 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, pt.1, ch.1.

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Women do not want power over men, they want power over themselves.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Men, Want

62 Copy quote
Only that education deserves emphatically to be termed cultivation of the mind which teaches young people how to begin to think.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Education, Thinking, People

Mary Wollstonecraft (2015). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, p.202, Booklassic

56 Copy quote
Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, men are insultingly supporting their own superiority.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Sex, Women, Thinking

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ch. 4 (1792)

48 Copy quote
Let woman share the rights and she will emulate the virtues of man; for she must grow more perfect when emancipated.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Men, Rights, Perfect

1792 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, pt.1, ch.13.

30 Copy quote
No man chooses evil because it's evil. He only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Happiness, Mistake, Men

Mary Wollstonecraft (2008). “A Vindication of the Rights of Women & a Vindication of the Rights of Men”, Cosimo, Inc.

43 Copy quote
Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Education, Men, Degrees

Mary Wollstonecraft (1793). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects”, p.19

19 Copy quote
The appetites will rule if the mind is vacant.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mind, Appetite, Vacant

Mary Wollstonecraft (1988). “A vindication of the rights of woman: an authoritative text, backgrounds, the Wollstonecraft debate, criticism”, W. W. Norton & Company

4 Copy quote
The being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Atheism, Literature, Reason

Mary Wollstonecraft (2012). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, p.177, Courier Corporation

33 Copy quote
Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Beauty, Women, Infancy Is

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ch. 3 (1792)

74 Copy quote
Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all affections, because it is founded on principle, and cemented by time. The very reverse may be said of love. In a great degree, love and friendship cannot subsist in the same bosom; even when inspired by different objects they weaken or destroy each other, and for the same object can only be felt in succession. The vain fears and fond jealousies, the winds which fan the flame of love, when judiciously or artfully tempered, are both incompatible with the tender confidence and sincere respect of friendship.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Friendship, Flames, Wind

Mary Wollstonecraft (2012). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, p.71, Courier Corporation

12 Copy quote
Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue; and independence I will ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live on a barren heath.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Life, Single, Blessing

Mary Wollstonecraft (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Mary Wollstonecraft (Illustrated)”, p.608, Delphi Classics

47 Copy quote
Simplicity and sincerity generally go hand in hand, as both proceed from a love of truth.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Hands, Simplicity, Sincerity

Mary Wollstonecraft, Barbara H. Solomon (1983). “A Mary Wollstonecraft reader”, Signet

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Women ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Women, Government, Share

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ch. 9 (1792)

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Till women are more rationally educated, the progress in human virtue and improvement in knowledge must receive continual checks.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Justice, Diversity, Progress

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ch. 3 (1792)

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It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Justice, Diversity, World

Mary Wollstonecraft, Sylvana Tomaselli (1995). “Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Men and a Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Hints”, p.149, Cambridge University Press

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Let us, my dear contemporaries, arise above such narrow prejudices. If wisdom be desirable on its own account, if virtue, to deserve the name, must be founded on knowledge, let us endeavour to strengthen our minds by reflection till our heads become a balance for our hearts.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Heart, Reflection, Names

Mary Wollstonecraft, Janet Todd (2008). “A Vindication of the Rights of Men; A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution”, p.166, Oxford University Press

17 Copy quote
What, but the rapacity of the only men who exercised their reason, the priests, secured such vast property to the church, when a man gave his perishable substance to save himself from the dark torments of purgatory; and found it more convenient to indulge his depraved appetites, and pay an exorbitant price for absolution, than listen to the suggestions of reason, and work out his own salvation: in a word, was not the separation of religion from morality the work of the priests...?

Mary Wollstonecraft

Dark, Men, Work Out

Mary Wollstonecraft (1997). “The Vindications: The Rights of Men and The Rights of Woman”, p.72, Broadview Press

17 Copy quote
For years I have endeavored to calm an impetuous tide -- laboring to make my feelings take an orderly course -- it was striving against the stream.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Years, Feelings, Tides

17 Copy quote
Make women rational creatures, and free citizens, and they will quickly become good wives; - that is, if men do not neglect the duties of husbands and fathers.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Husband, Father, Women

Mary Wollstonecraft (1796). “A vindication of the rights of woman: with strictures on political and moral subjects”, p.412

9 Copy quote
The two sexes mutually corrupt and improve each other.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Sex, Two

Mary Wollstonecraft (1796). “A vindication of the rights of woman: with strictures on political and moral subjects”, p.318

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Born: April 27, 1759
Died: September 10, 1797
Occupation: Writer
Cite this Page: Citation

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