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The greater number of people take their opinions on trust, to avoid the trouble of exercising their own minds, and these indolent beings naturally adhere to the letter, rather than the spirit of a law, divine or human.

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

Beginning Education People Teaching Thinking Young
Let woman share the rights, and she will emulate the virtues of man; for she must grow more perfect when emancipated, or justify the authority that chains such a weak being to her duty.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Growth Man Perfection Right Virtue Weakness Woman
How much more respectable is the woman who earns her own bread by fulfilling any duty, than the most accomplished beauty!
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Accomplishment Beautiful Respect Woman
Still the men stand up for the dignity of man, by oppressing the women.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Dignity Man Oppression Woman
My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed – my dearest pleasure when free.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Dream Freedom Myself
It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world!
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

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

Philosophy Truth Weakness
And if then women do not resign the arbitrary power of beauty—they will prove that they have less mind than man.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Beautiful Man Mindset Power Woman
Taught from infancy that beauty is woman’s sculpture the mind shapes itself to the body and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Beautiful Body Mindset Seek Woman
How can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions?
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Human Philosophy
The man who had some virtue whilst he was struggling for a crown, often becomes a voluptuous tyrant when it graces his brow.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Man Struggle Virtue
The being who patiently endures injustice, and silently bears insults, will soon become unjust, or unable to discern right from wrong.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Endurance Human Insult Patience Right Silence Wrong
Virtue flies from a house divided against itself—and a whole legion of devils take up their residence there.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Devil Virtue
Like the flowers that are planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed to beauty.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Beautiful Flower Rich Sacrifice Strength
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

Care Time Woman
Modesty, temperance, and self-denial, are the sober offspring of reason.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Character Reason
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

Exception Myself Necessary Promise Sex
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

Act Goodness Man Philosophy Secure Woman
As sound politics diffuse liberty, mankind, including woman, will become more wise and virtuous.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Liberty Politics Virtue Wisdom Woman
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

Deserve Ideas Knowledge Mortal Power
I gazed around with rapture, and felt more of that spontaneous pleasure which gives credibility to our expectation of happiness than I had for a long, long time before.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Feeling Happiness Myself See Time
It appears necessary to go back to first principles in search of the most simple truths, and to dispute with some prevailing prejudice every inch of ground.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Appearance Necessary Principle Search Simplicity
It is far better to be often deceived than never to trust; to be disappointed in love, than never to love.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Disappointment Love Trust
Thus do we wish as we float down the stream of life, whilst chance does more to gratify our desire for knowledge than our best-laid plans.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Desire Knowledge Life Ourselves
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

Love Man Myself Reality Reason
Some women govern their husbands without degrading themselves, because intellect will always govern.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Government Husband Intellectual Woman
The appetites will rule if the mind is vacant.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Advice Mindset One Liner

The greater number of people take their opinions on trust, to avoid the trouble of exercising their own minds, and these indolent beings naturally adhere to the letter, rather than the spirit of a law, divine or human.

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The greater number of people take their opinions on trust, to avoid the trouble of exercising their own minds, and these indolent beings naturally adhere to the letter, rather than the spirit of a law, divine or human.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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