Mary Wollstonecraft
translator, philosopher, historian, novelist, essayist, governess, proprietor, travel writer, children's writer, writer
Read on Wikipedia1759 – 1797
All Quotes by 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.”
“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.”
“Nothing, I am sure, calls forth the faculties so much as the being obliged to struggle with the world; and this is not a woman's province in a married state. Her sphere of action is not large, and if she is not taught to look into her own heart, how trivial are her occupations and pursuits! What little arts engross and narrow her mind!”
“The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger.”
“You know I am not born to tread in the beaten track — the peculiar bent of my nature pushes me on.”
“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”
“Virtue can only flourish amongst equals.”
“I am a strange compound of weakness and resolution! However, if I must suffer, I will endeavour to suffer in silence. There is certainly a great defect in my mind — my wayward heart creates its own misery — Why I am made thus I cannot tell; and, till I can form some idea of the whole of my existence, I must be content to weep and dance like a child — long for a toy, and be tired of it as soon as I get it.”
“Every political good carried to the extreme must be productive of evil.”
“The endeavor to keep alive any hoary establishment beyond its natural date is often pernicious and always useless.”
“I write in a hurry, because the little one, who has been sleeping a long time, begins to call for me. Poor thing! when I am sad, I lament that all my affections grow on me, till they become too strong for my peace, though they all afford me snatches of exquisite enjoyment.”
“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.”
“Till women are more rationally educated, the progress in human virtue and improvement in knowledge must receive continual checks.”
“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.”
“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?”
“How can a rational being be ennobled by anything that is not obtained by its own exertions?”
“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.”
“It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meannesses, cares, and sorrows, into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion that they were created rather to feel than reason, and that all the power they obtain, must be obtained by their charms and weakness.”
“It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world.”
“A modest man is steady, an humble man timid, and a vain one presumptuous.”
“Women becoming, consequently weaker, in mind and body, than they ought to be...have not sufficient strength to discharge the first duty of a mother; and sacrificing to lasciviousness the parental affection...either 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.”
“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.”
“It is a melancholy truth; yet such is the blessed effect of civilization! the most respectable women are the most oppressed; and, unless they have understandings far superiour to the common run of understandings, taking in both sexes, they must, from being treated like contemptible beings, become contemptible.”
“It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men; nay, it is vain to expect that strength of natural affection which would make them good wives and mothers. Whilst they are absolutely dependent on their husbands they will be cunning, mean, and selfish.”
“How many women thus waste life away the prey of discontent, who might have practised as physicians, regulated a farm, managed a shop, and stood erect, supported by their own industry, instead of hanging their heads surcharged with the dew of sensibility, that consumes the beauty to which it at first gave lustre.”
“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.”
“Till society is very differently constituted, parents, I fear, will still insist on being obeyed, because they will be obeyed, and constantly endeavour to settle that power on a Divine right, which will not bear the investigation of reason.”
“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.”
“Affection requires a firmer foundation than sympathy, and few people have a principle of action sufficiently stable to produce rectitude of feeling; for in spite of all the arguments I have heard to justify deviations from duty, I am persuaded that even the most spontaneous sensations are more under the direction of principle than weak people are willing to allow.”
“Executions, far from being useful examples to the survivors, have, I am persuaded, a quite contrary effect, by hardening the heart they ought to terrify. Besides, the fear of an ignominious death, I believe, never deterred anyone from the commission of a crime, because in committing it the mind is roused to activity about present circumstances.”
“The same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain would have rendered him useful to society, had that society been well organized.”
“We reason deeply, when we forcibly feel.”
“It is the preservation of the species, not of individuals, which appears to be the design of Deity throughout the whole of nature.”
“Situation seems to be the mould in which men's characters are formed.”
“An ardent affection for the human race makes enthusiastic characters eager to produce alteration in laws and governments prematurely. To render them useful and permanent, they must be the growth of each particular soil, and the gradual fruit of the ripening understanding of the nation, matured by time, not forced by an unnatural fermentation.”
“Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in.”
“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”
“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.”
“Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.”
“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.”
“It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world.”
“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.”
“How can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions?”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Children, I grant, should be innocent; but when the epithet is applied to men, or women, it is but a civil term for weakness.”
“Women ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government.”
“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?”
“The beginning is always today.”
“Virtue can only flourish among equals.”
“The being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason.”
“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.”
“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.”
“In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable - and life is more than a dream.”
“The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Every political good carried to the extreme must be productive of evil.”
“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.”
“Why is our fancy to be appalled by terrific perspectives of a hell beyond the grave?”
“I do earnestly wish to see the distinction of sex confounded in society, unless where love animates the behaviour.”
“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.”
“Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in.”
“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.”
“Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in.”
“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”
“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”
“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.”
“Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in.”