Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes About Virtue

Quotes about: Virtue

• 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

• 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

• Virtue can only flourish among equals.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Equality, Virtue, Equal

• 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.

• Perhaps the seeds of false-refinement, immorality, and vanity, have ever been shed by the great. Weak, artificial beings, raised above the common wants and defections of their race, in a premature and unnatural manner, undermine the very foundation of virtue, and spread corruption through the whole mass of society!

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Leadership, Women, Vanity

• Women are degraded by the propensity to enjoy the present moment, and, at last, despise the freedom which they have not sufficient virtue to struggle to attain.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Women, Struggle, Aggravation

  Mary Wollstonecraft, Philip Barnard, Stephen Shapiro (2013). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: Abridged with Related Texts”, p.33, Hackett Publishing

• 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)

• And this homage to women's attractions has distorted their understanding tosuch an extent that almost all the civilized women of the present century are anxious only to inspire love, when they ought to have the nobler aim of getting respect for their abilities and virtues.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Love, Understanding, Inspire

• It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Women, Independent, Feminism

  Mary Wollstonecraft (2013). “Vindication of the Rights of Women”, p.155, Lulu.com

• Make them free, and they will quickly become wise and virtous, as men become more so; for the improvement must be mutual, or the injustice which one half of the human race are obliged to submit to, retorting on their oppressors, the virtue of men will be worm-eaten by the insect whom he keeps under his feet

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Wise, Men, Race

  Mary Wollstonecraft (2008). “A Vindication of the Rights of Women & a Vindication of the Rights of Men”, p.186, Cosimo, Inc.

• But women are very differently situated with respect to eachother - for they are all rivals (...) Is it then surprising that when the sole ambition of woman centres in beauty, and interest gives vanity additional force, perpetual rivalships should ensue? They are all running the same race, and would rise above the virtue of morals, if they did not view each other with a suspicious and even envious eye.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Running, Ambition, Eye

• The most perfect education ... is such an exercise of the understanding as is best calculated to strengthen the body and form the heart. Or, in other words, to enable the individual to attain such habits of virtue as will render it independent.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Education, Independent, Heart

  Mary Wollstonecraft, Sylvana Tomaselli (1995). “Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Men and a Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Hints”, p.89, Cambridge University Press

• In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Exercise, Atheism, Farce

  Mary Wollstonecraft (1796). “A vindication of the rights of woman: with strictures on political and moral subjects”, p.37

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

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Maturity, Vivacious, Modesty

  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.200, Oxford Paperbacks

• 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

• Women deluded by these sentiments, sometimes boast of their weakness, cunningly obtaining power by playing on the weakness of men; and they may well glory in their illicit sway, for, like Turkish bashaws, they have more real power than their masters: but virtue is sacrificed to temporary gratifications, and the respectability of life to the triumph of an hour.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Real, Men, May

  Mary Wollstonecraft (1796). “A vindication of the rights of woman: with strictures on political and moral subjects”, p.80

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