Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes

They may be convenient slaves, but slavery will have its constant effect, degrading the master and the abject dependent.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Result Slave
Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable – and life is more than a dream.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Dream End Forever Heart Life Live
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

Alone Hope Myself Sex View
How can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions?
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Human Philosophy
She would stand and behold the waves rolling, and think of the voice that could still the tumultuous deep.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Herself Thinking Voice
Every glance afforded colouring for the picture she was delineating on her heart.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Heart Herself Photograph See
Let their faculties have room to unfold, and their virtues to gain strength, and then determine where the whole sex must stand in the intellectual scale.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Intellectual Sex Strength Virtue
Solitude and reflection are necessary to give to wishes the force of passions.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Passionate Reflection Solitude
Modesty, temperance, and self-denial, are the sober offspring of reason.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Character Reason
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
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

Man Respect Sex Weakness
It may be impossible to convince women that the illegitimate power which they obtain by degrading themselves is a curse.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Impossible Power Self Love Woman
Pope’s summary of their character to be just, that every woman is at heart a rake.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Character Woman
Rousseau exerts himself to prove that all was right originally: a crowd of authors that all is now right: and I, that all will be right.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Himself Right
As sound politics diffuse liberty, mankind, including woman, will become more wise and virtuous.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Liberty Politics Virtue Wisdom Woman
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
Men who are inferior to their fellow men, are always most anxious to establish their superiority over women.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Establishment Man Woman Worth
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

Creation Herself Man Reason
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

Ignorance Philosophy 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
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
Simplicity and sincerity generally go hand in hand, as both proceed from a love of truth.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Hands Love Simplicity Truth
I shall not waste my time in rounding periods, nor in fabricating the turgid bombast of artificial feelings, which, coming from the head, never reach the heart.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Feeling Heart Myself Wasted Time
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

Greatness Injury Moral Myself Power
I like to see your eyes praise me and, during such recitals, there are interruptions, not ungrateful to the heart, when the honey that drops from the lips is not merely words.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Eyes Heart Lips Myself Word
They who pass their whole lives in working for their daily bread, have no ideas beyond their business or their interest, and all their understanding seems to lie in their fingers ends.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Beyond Business End Fingers Ideas Lie Live Understanding
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

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