Mary Wollstonecraft famous quotes

03-24-2025

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

#Women #Men #Wish
The beginning is always today.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#New Beginnings #Today
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
It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Justice #Charity #World
Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable - and life is more than a dream.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Dream #Heart #Literature
Simplicity and sincerity generally go hand in hand, as both proceed from a love of truth.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Hands #Simplicity #Sincerity
Women becoming, consequently, weakerthan they ought to behave not sufficient strength to discharge the first duty of a mother; and sacrificing to lasciviousness the parental affectioneither destroy the embryo in the womb, or cast if off when born. Nature in every thing demands respect, and those who violate her laws seldom violate them with impunity.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Mother #Sacrifice #Law
Women do not want power over men, they want power over themselves.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Men #Want
I love man as my fellow; but his scepter, real, or usurped, extends not to me, unless the reason of an individual demands my homage; and even then the submission is to reason, and not to man.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Love #Real #Men
The power of generalizing ideas, of drawing comprehensive conclusions from individual observations, is the only acquirement, for an immortal being, that really deserves the name of knowledge.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Names #Ideas #Drawing
... judicious books enlarge the mind and improve the heart ...
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Book #Heart #Mind
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
It appears to me impossible that I should cease to exist, or that this active, restless spirit, equally alive to joy and sorrow, should only be organised dust - ready to fly abroad the moment the spring snaps, or the spark goes out, which kept it together. Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable - and life is more than a dream.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Dream #Spring #Heart
I begin to love this creature, and to anticipate her birth as a fresh twist to a knot, which I do not wish to untie.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Pregnancy #Wish #Twists
Virtue can only flourish among equals.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Equality #Virtue #Equal
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
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 #Feminist
The being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Atheism #Literature #Reason
Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Women #Mother And Daughter #Mind
... wealth and female softness equally tend to debase mankind!
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Female #Wealth #Mankind
... we never do any thing well, unless we love it for its own sake.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Success #Excellence #Sake
... the conduct of an accountable being must be regulated by the operations of its own reason ...
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Morality #Behavior #Reason
...trifling employments have rendered woman a trifler.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Employment #Trifling
It is time to effect a revolution in female manners - time to restore to them their lost dignity. It is time to separate unchangeable morals from local manners.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Time #Female #Revolution
Taught from their 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. Men have various employments and pursuits which engage their attention, and give a character to the opening mind; but women, confined to one, and having their thoughts constantly directed to the most insignificant part of themselves, seldom extend their views beyond the triumph of the hour.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

#Women #Character #Views

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