And if then women do not resign the arbitrary power of beauty—they will prove that they have less mind than man.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFTWomen 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.
More Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes
-
-
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 -
All the sacred rights of humanity are violated by insisting on blind obedience.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
The beginning is always today.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
She was created to be the toy of man, his rattle, and it must jingle in his ears whenever, dismissing reason, he chooses to be amused.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
The power of generalizing ideas, of drawing comprehensive conclusions from individual observations, is the only acquirement, for an immortal being, that really deserves the name of knowledge.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
The appetites will rule if the mind is vacant.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
Not on the score of modesty, but decency; for the care which some modest women take, making at the same time a display of that care, not to let their legs be seen, is as childish as immodest.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
How much more respectable is the woman who earns her own bread by fulfilling any duty, than the most accomplished beauty!
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 -
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 -
A king is always a king-and a woman always a woman: his authority and her sex, ever stand between them and rational converse.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
Thus do we wish as we float down the stream of life, whilst chance does.
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 -
It may be impossible to convince women that the illegitimate power which they obtain by degrading themselves is a curse.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
Nature in everything demands respect, and those who violate her laws seldom violate them with impunity.
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 -
They may be convenient slaves, but slavery will have its constant effect, degrading the master and the abject dependent.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
Only by the jostlings of equality can we form a just opinion of ourselves.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
No man chooses evil because it is evil; he just mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
Let us eat, drink, and love for tomorrow we die, would be in fact the language of reason, the morality of life; and who but a fool would part with a reality for a fleeting shadow?
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 -
Men of genius and talents have started out of a class, in which women have never yet been placed.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
She would stand and behold the waves rolling, and think of the voice that could still the tumultuous deep.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT -
Virtue flies from a house divided against itself—and a whole legion of devils take up their residence there.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT