246 Quotes by Mary Wollstonecraft

The little respect paid to chastity in the male world is, I am persuaded, the grand source of many of the physical and moral evils that torment mankind, as well as of the vices and follies that degrade and destroy women; yet, at school, boys infallibly lose that decent bashfulness, which might have ripened into modesty at home.

How can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions?

Why are girls to be told that they resemble angels; but to sink them below women? Or, that a gentle, innocent female is an object that comes nearer to the idea which we have formed of angels than any other. Yet they are told, at the same time, that they are only like angels when they are young and beautiful; consequently, it is their persons, not their virtues, that procure them this homage.

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.

I shall disdain to cull my phrases or polish my style. I aim at being useful, and sincerity will render me unaffected; [...] wishing rather to persuade by the force of my arguments than dazzle by the elegance of my language

...a being, with a capacity of reasoning, would not have failed to discover, as his faculties unfolded, that true happiness arose from the friendship and intimacy which can only be enjoyed by equals; and that charity is not a condescending distribution of alms, but an intercourse of good offices and mutual benefits, founded on respect for justice and humanity.

It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world!

Nature in everything demands respect, and those who violate her laws seldom violate them with impunity.

No deseo que las mujeres tengan poder sobre otros hombres, sino sobre si mismas.