The most holy band of society is friendship. It has been well said, by a shrewd satirist, “that rare as true love is, true friendship is still rarer.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFTHow can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions?
More Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes
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Men, indeed, appear to me to act in a very unphilosophical manner when they try to secure the good conduct of women by attempting to keep them always in a state of childhood.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
Thus do we wish as we float down the stream of life, whilst chance does.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
If then women are not a swarm of ephemeron triflers, why should they be kept in ignorance under the specious name of innocence?
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
Pope’s summary of their character to be just, that every woman is at heart a rake.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
How can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions?
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
They are the men of fancy, the favourites of the sex, who outwardly respect, and inwardly despise the weak creatures whom they thus sport with.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
Without the aid of the imagination all the pleasures of the senses must sink into grossness.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
But what a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis!
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
Nature in everything demands respect, and those who violate her laws seldom violate them with impunity.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
True sensibility, the sensibility which is the auxiliary of virtue, and the soul of genius, is in society so occupied with the feelings of others, as scarcely to regard its own sensations.
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 -
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 -
Simplicity and sincerity generally go hand in hand, as both proceed from a love of truth.
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 -
But let me now stop; I may be a little partial, and view every thing with the jaundiced eye of melancholy – for I am sad – and have cause.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
All power inebriates weak man; and its abuse proves that the more equality there is established among men, the more virtue and happiness will reign in society.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
Soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste are almost synonymous with the epithets of weakness, I wish to show that elegance is inferior to virtue.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
It is not necessary for me always to premise, that I speak of the condition of the whole sex, leaving exceptions out of the question.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
After attacking the sacred majesty of Kings, I shall scarcely excite surprise by adding my firm persuasion that every profession, in which great subordination of rank constitutes its power, is highly injurious to morality.
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 -
It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
All the sacred rights of humanity are violated by insisting on blind obedience.
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 -
Taxes on the very necessaries of life, enable an endless tribe of idle princes and princesses to pass with stupid pomp before a gaping crowd, who almost worship the very parade which costs them so dear.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
Men who are inferior to their fellow men, are always most anxious to establish their superiority over women.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
If children are to be educated to understand the true principle of patriotism, their mother must be a patriot.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT