246 Quotes by Mary Wollstonecraft

Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable - and life is more than a dream.

Make them free, and they will quickly become wise and virtous, as men become more so; for the improvement must be mutual, or the injustice which one half of the human race are obliged to submit to, retorting on their oppressors, the virtue of men will be worm-eaten by the insect whom he keeps under his feet

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.

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.

The same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain would have rendered him useful in society, had that society been well organized.

Hereditary property sophisticates the mind, and the unfortunate victims to it ... swathed from their birth, seldom exert the locomotive faculty of body or mind; and, thus viewing every thing through one medium, and that a false one, they are unable to discern in what true merit and happiness consist.

Every political good carried to the extreme must be productive of evil.

Women do not want power over men, they want power over themselves.

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.