Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes

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

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.

The beginning is always today.

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

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

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

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

Modesty is the graceful, calm virtue of maturity; bashfulness the charm of vivacious youth.

How frequently has melancholy and even misanthropy taken possession of me, when the world has disgusted me, and friends have proven unkind. I have then considered myself as a particle broken off from the grand mass of mankind.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Man preys on man; and you mourn for the idle tapestry that decorated a gothic pillar, and the dronish bell that summoned the fat priest to prayer. You mourn for the empty pageant of a name, when slavery flaps her wing, ... Why is our fancy to be appalled by terrific perspectives of a hell beyond the grave? - Hell stalks abroad; - the lash resounds on the slave's naked sides; and the sick wretch, who can no longer earn the sour bread of unremitting labour, steals to a ditch to bid the world a long good night.

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

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

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

A modest man is steady, an humble man timid, and a vain one presumptuous.

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.

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

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

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

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

The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger.

To be a good mother, a woman must have sense, and that independence of mind which few women possess who are taught to depend entirely on their husbands. Meek wives are, in general, foolish mothers; wanting their children to love them best, and take their part, in secret, against the father, who is held up as a scarecrow.

The mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest on.

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.

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.

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...?

Virtue can only flourish among equals.

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

We cannot, without depraving our minds, endeavour to please a lover or husband, but in proportion as he pleases us.

At boarding schools of every description, the relaxation of the junior boys is mischief; and of the senior, vice.

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.

Hereditary property sophisticates the mind, and the unfortunate victims to it ... swathed from their birth, seldom exert the locomotive faculty of body or mind; and, thus viewing every thing through one medium, and that a false one, they are unable to discern in what true merit and happiness consist.

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.

...men endeavor to sink us still lower, merely to render us alluring objects for a moment; and women, intoxicated by the adoration which men, under the influence of their senses, pay them, do not seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts, or to become the friends of the fellow creatures who find amusement in their society.

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.

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.

... we never do any thing well, unless we love it for its own sake.

Society can only be happy and free in proportion as it is virtuous.

Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable - and life is more than a dream.

Weakness may excite tenderness, and gratify the arrogant pride of man; but the lordly caresses of a protector will not gratify a noble mind that pants for, and deserves to be respected. Fondness is a poor substitute for friendship.

Every political good carried to the extreme must be productive of evil.

When we feel deeply, we reason profoundly.

Love from its very nature must be transitory. To seek for a secret that would render it constant would be as wild a search as for the philosopher’s stone or the grand panacea: and the discovery would be equally useless, or rather pernicious to mankind. The most holy band of society is friendship.

I begin to love this little creature, and to anticipate his birth as a fresh twist to a knot, which I do not wish to untie.

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.