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.

59 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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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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The beginning is always today.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Inspiring, New Beginnings, Divorce

76 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

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

Mary Wollstonecraft

Men, Want

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When we feel deeply, we reason profoundly.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Reason, Feels

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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

28 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)

85 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.

81 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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Virtue can only flourish among equals.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Equality, Virtue, Equal

23 Copy quote
To improve both sexes they ought, not only in private families, but in public schools, to be educated together. If marriage be the cement of society, mankind should all be educated after the same model, or the intercourse of the sexes will never deserve the name of fellowship.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Marriage, Sex, School

Mary Wollstonecraft, Philip Barnard, Stephen Shapiro (2013). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: Abridged with Related Texts”, p.70, Hackett Publishing

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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)

61 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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It appears to me impossible that I should cease to exist, or that this active, restless spirit, equally alive to joy and sorrow, should be only organized dust.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Dust, Joy, Sorrow

Mary Wollstonecraft (2005). “Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark”, p.76, Cosimo, Inc.

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

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mind, Prejudice, Unstable

Mary Wollstonecraft (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Mary Wollstonecraft (Illustrated)”, p.624, Delphi Classics

24 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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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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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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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

53 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

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Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience; but, as blind obedience is ever sought for by power, tyrants and sensualists are in the right when they endeavor to keep women in the dark because, the former only want slaves, and the latter a play-thing.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Dark, Play, Tyrants

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

8 Copy quote
Life cannot be seen by an unmoved spectator.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Spectators

Mary Wollstonecraft (1796). “A vindication of the rights of woman: with strictures on political and moral subjects”, p.251

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

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