Mary Wollstonecraft

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

— Mary Wollstonecraft

But what a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis!

— Mary Wollstonecraft

True happiness must arise from well-regulated affections, and an affection includes a duty.

— Mary Wollstonecraft

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

— Mary Wollstonecraft

...trifling employments have rendered woman a trifler.

— Mary Wollstonecraft

Situation seems to be the mould in which men's characters are formed.

— Mary Wollstonecraft

“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he just mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”

— Mary Wollstonecraft

“Solitude and reflection are necessary to give to wishes the force of passions.”

— Mary Wollstonecraft

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

— Mary Wollstonecraft

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

— Mary Wollstonecraft

Slavery to monarchs and ministers, which the world will be long freeing itself from, and whose deadly grasp stops the progress of…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

The last man! Yes I may well describe that solitary being's feelings, feeling myself as the last relic of a beloved race,…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

If the abstract rights of man will bear discussion and explanation, those of women, by a parity of reasoning, will not shrink…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

“If then women are not a swarm of ephemeron triflers, why should they be kept in ignorance under the specious name of…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

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

— Mary Wollstonecraft

The endeavor to keep alive any hoary establishment beyond its natural date is often pernicious and always useless.

— Mary Wollstonecraft

Thinking it selfish to dwell on her own sufferings, when in the midst of wretches, who had not only lost all that…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

To improve both sexes they ought, not only in private families, but in public schools, to be educated together. If marriage be…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meannesses, cares, and sorrows into which women are plunged by the…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

Learn from me, if not by my precepts, then by my example, how dangerous is the pursuit of knowledge and how much…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

“It is time to effect a revolution in female manners - time to restore to them their lost dignity - and make…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

“A magic lamp now seemed to be suspended in Maria’s prison, and fairy landscapes flitted round the gloomy walls, late so blank.…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

At school boys become gluttons and slovens, and, instead of cultivating domestic affections, very early rush into the libertinism which destroys the…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

“Love, the common passion, in which chance and sensation take place of choice and reason, is in some degree, felt by the…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

“To speak disrespectfully of love is, I know, high treason against sentiment and fine feelings; but I wish to speak the simple…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

“The common attachment and regard of a mother, nay, mere habit, will make her beloved by her children, if she does nothing…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

“In the name of truth and common sense, why should not one woman acknowledge that she can take more exercise than another?…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

“without hope, what is to sustain life, but the fear of annihilation—the only thing of which I have ever felt a dread—I…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

“Women are, therefore, to be considered either as moral beings, or so weak that they must be entirely subjected to the superior…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

But women are very differently situated with respect to eachother - for they are all rivals (...) Is it then surprising that…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

“The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently prove, that their minds are not in a healthy state; for, like the…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

“when two young people marry—even virtuous ones—it might also be fine if some circumstance checked their passion; if the memory of some…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

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

— Mary Wollstonecraft

“Without the aid of the imagination all the pleasures of the senses must sink into grossness.”

— Mary Wollstonecraft

How can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions?

— Mary Wollstonecraft

“Parental affection is, perhaps, the blindest modification of perverse self-love;”

— Mary Wollstonecraft

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

— Mary Wollstonecraft

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

— Mary Wollstonecraft

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

— Mary Wollstonecraft

Women are degraded by the propensity to enjoy the present moment, and, at last, despise the freedom which they have not sufficient…

— Mary Wollstonecraft