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.

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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.

50 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

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The beginning is always today.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Inspiring, New Beginnings, Divorce

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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.

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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

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

Mary Wollstonecraft

Men, Want

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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.

25 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.

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When we feel deeply, we reason profoundly.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Reason, Feels

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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)

81 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)

54 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

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When a man seduces a woman, it should, I think, be termed a left-handed marriage.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Marriage, Men, Thinking

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

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The absurd duty, too often inculcated, of obeying a parent only on account of his being a parent, shackles the mind, and prepares it for a slavish submission to any power but reason.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Parent, Mind, Reason

Mary Wollstonecraft (2015). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, p.190, Booklassic

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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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People thinking for themselves have more energy in their voice, than any government, which it is possible for human wisdom to invent; and every government not aware of this sacred truth will, at some period, be suddenly overturned.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Thinking, Government, Voice

Mary Wollstonecraft, Janet Todd (1999). “A Vindication of the Rights of Men; A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution”, p.357, Oxford Paperbacks

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When poverty is more disgraceful than even vice, is not morality cut to the quick?

Mary Wollstonecraft

Cutting, Vices, Poverty

Mary Wollstonecraft (1796). “A vindication of the rights of woman: with strictures on political and moral subjects”, p.335

8 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

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Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all affections, because it is founded on principle, and cemented by time.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Sublime, Principles, Serious

Mary Wollstonecraft (2015). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, p.90, Booklassic

31 Copy quote
Some women govern their husbands without degrading themselves, because intellect will always govern.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Husband, Intellect, Degrading

1792 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, introduction.

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How can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions?

Mary Wollstonecraft

Literature, Rational, Exertion

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

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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

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Virtue can only flourish among equals.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Equality, Virtue, Equal

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You know I am not born to tread in the beaten track the peculiar bent of my nature pushes me on.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Track, Peculiar, Bent

Mary Wollstonecraft (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Mary Wollstonecraft (Illustrated)”, p.1422, Delphi Classics

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

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