Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft’s life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationships at the time, received more attention than her writing. Profoundly inspirational Mary Wollstonecraft quotes will fire up your brain and encourage you to look at life differently while making you laugh.
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Famous Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes
No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks. Mary Wollstonecraft
I do not wish them women to have power over men; but over themselves. Mary Wollstonecraft
Virtue can only flourish among equals. Mary Wollstonecraft
My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone. Mary Wollstonecraft
Women ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government. Mary Wollstonecraft
The beginning is always today. Mary Wollstonecraft
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
If we revert to history, we shall find that the women who have distinguished themselves have neither been the most beautiful nor the most gentle of their sex. Mary Wollstonecraft
It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world. Mary Wollstonecraft
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. Mary Wollstonecraft
Every political good carried to the extreme must be productive of evil. Mary Wollstonecraft
It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men. Mary Wollstonecraft
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
Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience. Mary Wollstonecraft
Women have seldom sufficient employment to silence their feelings; a round of little cares, or vain pursuits frittering away all strength of mind and organs, they become naturally only objects of sense. Mary Wollstonecraft
No man chooses evil because it is evil; he just mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks. Mary Wollstonecraft
How can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions? Mary Wollstonecraft
Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all affections, because it is founded on principle, and cemented by time. Mary Wollstonecraft
Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in. Mary Wollstonecraft
I never wanted but your heart that gone, you have nothing more to give. Mary Wollstoncraft
Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience. Mary Wollstonecraft
It is time to effect a revolution in female manners time to restore to them their lost dignity and make them, as a part of the human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform the world. It is time to separate unchangeable morals from local manners. Mary Wollstonecraft
The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger. Mary Wollstonecraft
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
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
I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists. I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings are only the objects of pity, and that kind of love which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt. Mary Wollstonecraft
Children, I grant, should be innocent; but when the epithet is applied to men, or women, it is but a civil term for weakness. Mary Wollstonecraft
Simplicity and sincerity generally go hand in hand, as both proceed from a love of truth. Mary Wollstonecraft
If women be educated for dependence; that is, to act according to the will of another fallible being, and submit, right or wrong, to power, where are we to stop? Mary Wollstonecraft
My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed my dearest pleasure when free. Mary Wollstonecraft
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
Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable and life is more than a dream. Mary Wollstonecraft
I love my 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
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. Mary Wollstonecraft
The being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason. Mary Wollstonecraft
My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone. I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are only objects of pity and that kind of love, which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt. Mary Wollstonecraft
Why is our fancy to be appalled by terrific perspectives of a hell beyond the grave? Mary Wollstonecraft
But what a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis! Mary Wollstonecraft
In every age there has been a stream of popular opinion that has carried all before it, and given a family character, as it were, to the century. Mary Wollstonecraft
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
The beginning is always today. Mary Wollstonecraft
All the sacred rights of humanity are violated by insisting on blind obedience. Mary Wollstonecraft
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
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. Mary Wollstonecraft
The same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain would have rendered him useful in society, had that society been well organized. Mary Wollstonecraft
There must be more equality established in society, or morality will never gain ground, and this virtuous equakity will not rest firmly even when founded on a rock, if one half of mankind be chained to its bottom by fate, for they will be continually undermining it through ignorance or pride. Mary Wollstonecraft
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
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. Mary Wollstonecraft
Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable and life is more than a dream. Mary Wollstonecraft
How can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions? Mary Wollstonecraft
Slavery to monarchs and ministers, which the world will be long freeing itself from, and whose deadly grasp stops the progress of the human mind, is not yet abolished. Mary Wollstonecraft
The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently prove that their minds are not in a healthy state; for, like the flowers which are planted in too rich a soil, strenght state; usefulness are sacrificed to beauty; and the flaunting leaves, after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade, disregarded on the stalk, long before the season when they ought to have arrived at maturity. Mary Wollstonecraft
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
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
If the abstract rights of man will bear discussion and explanation, those of women, by a parity of reasoning, will not shrink from the same test. Mary Wollstonecraft
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
Learn from me, if not by my precepts, then by my example, how dangerous is the pursuit of knowledge and how much happier is that man who believes his native town to be the world than he who aspires to be greater than his nature will allow. Mary Wollstonecraft
The man who can be contented to live with a pretty and useful companion who has no mind has lost in voluptuous gratifications a taste for more refined pleasures; he has never felt the calm and refreshing satisfaction of being loved by someone who could understand him. Mary Wollstonecraft
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. Mary Wollstonecraft
It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world! Mary Wollstonecraft
I do earnestly wish to see the distinction of sex confounded in society, unless where love animates the behaviour. Mary Wollstonecraft
It is far better to be often deceived than never to trust; to be disappointed in love, than never to love. Mary Wollstonecraft
Simplicity and sincerity generally go hand in hand, as both proceed from a love of truth. Mary Wollstonecraft
Friendship and domestic happiness are continually praised; yet how little is there of either in the world, because it requires more cultivation of mind to keep awake affection, even in our own hearts, than the common run of people suppose. Mary Wollstonecraft
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
England and America owe their liberty to commerce, which created a new species of power to undermine the feudal system. But let them beware of the consequences the tyranny of wealth is still more galling and debasing than that of rank. Mary Wollstonecraft
I never wanted but your heart, that gone, you have nothing more to give. Mary Wollstonecraft
They may be convenient slaves, but slavery will have its constant effect, degrading the master and the abject dependent. Mary Wollstonecraft
Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all affections, because it is founded on principle, and cemented by time. Mary Wollstonecraft
A virtuous man may have a choleric or a sanguine constitution, be gay or grave, unreproved, be firm till he is almost over bearing, or weakly subsmissive, have no will or opinion of his own; but all women are to be levelled, by meekness and docility, into one character of yielding softness and gentle compliance. Mary Wollstonecraft
Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable and life is more than a dream. Mary Wollstonecraft
I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity and that kind of love, which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt. Mary Wollstonecraft
My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed my dearest pleasure when free. Mary Wollstonecraft
Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowlegde of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper; outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of proptiety, will obtain for them the protection of man; and should they be beautiful, every thing else is needless, for, at least, twenty years of their lives. Mary Wollstonecraft
Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in. Mary Wollstonecraft
Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to their sex, when, in fact, men are insultingly supporting their own superiority. Mary Wollstonecraft
Virtue can only flourish among equals. Mary Wollstonecraft
I like to see your eyes praise me and, during such recitals, there are interruptions, not ungrateful to the heart, when the honey that drops from the lips is not merely words. Mary Wollstonecraft
Children, I grant, should be innocent; but when the epithet is applied to men, or women, it is but a civil term for weakness. Mary Wollstonecraft
Happy would it be for women, if they were only flattered by the men who loved them; I mean, who love the individual, not the sex. Mary Wollstonecraft
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
Only that education deserves emphatically to be termed cultivation of the mind which teaches young people how to begin to think. Mary Wollstonecraft
No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks. Mary Wollstonecraft
What but a pestilential vapour can hover over society when its chief director is only instructed in the invention of crimes, or the stupid routine of childish ceremonies? Mary Wollstonecraft
Women have seldom sufficient employment to silence their feelings. Mary Wollstonecraft
In this style, argue tyrants of every denomination, from the weak king to the weak father of a family; they are all eager to crush reason; yet always assert that they usurp its throne only to be useful. Do you not acta similar part, when you force all women, by denying them civil and political rights, to remain immured in their families groping in the dark? Mary Wollstonecraft
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
Those who are bold enough to advance before the age they live in must learn to brave censure. Mary Wollstonecraft
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
