Mary Wollstonecraft quotes - page 3

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)
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
I see not the shadow of a reason to conclude that their [the sexes'] virtues should differ in respect to their nature. In fact, how can they, if virtue has only one eternal standard? I must therefore, if I reason consequentially, as strenuously maintain that they must have the same simple direction as that there is a God. View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
Some women govern their husbands without degrading themselves, because intellect will always govern. View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
Of Women I do not wish them to have power over men but over themselves. View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
The more I see of the world, the more I am convinced that civilisation is a blessing not sufficiently estimated by those who have not traced its progress; for it not only refines our enjoyments, but produces a variety which enables us to retain the primitive delicacy of our sensations. View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
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. (Mary Wollstonecraft)
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. View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
I am persuaded that even the most spontaneous sensations are more under the direction of principle than weak people are willing to allow. View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
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. View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
Should it be proved that woman is naturally weaker than man, from whence does it follow that it is natural for her to labour to become still weaker than nature intended her to be? View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
An ardent affection for the human race makes enthusiastic characters eager to produce alteration in laws and governments prematurely. View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
By this false politeness, sincerity is sacrificed, and truth violated; and thus artificial manners are necessarily taught. For true politeness is a polish, not a varnish; and should rather be acquired by observation than admonition. View quote
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. View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
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. View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
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. View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
When a man seduces a woman, it should, I think, be termed a left-handed marriage. (Mary Wollstonecraft)
The mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest on, and the current will run with destructive fury when there are no barriers to break its force. View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
The graceful ivy, clasping the oak that supported it, would form a whole in which strength and beauty would be equally conspicuous. View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
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! View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft
The rights and duties of man thus simplified, it seems almost impertinent to attempt to illustrate truths that appear so incontrovertible: yet such deeply rooted prejudices have clouded reason, and such spurious qualities have assumed the name of virtues, that it is necessary to pursue the course of reason as it has been perplexed and involved in error, by various adventitious circumstances, comparing the simple axiom with casual deviations. Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify prejudices, which they have imbibed, they cannot trace how, rather than to root them out. The mind must be strong that resolutely forms its own principles; for a kind of intellectual cowardice prevails which makes many men shrink from the task, or only do it by halves. Yet the imperfect conclusions thus drawn, are frequently very plausible, because they are built on partial experience, on just, though narrow, views. View quote
Mary Wollstonecraft