...men endeavor to sink us still lower, merely to render us alluring objects for a moment; and women, intoxicated by the adoration which men, under the influence of their senses, pay them, do not seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts, or to become the friends of the fellow creatures who find amusement in their society.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Categorized in : Men Pay Heart

I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.

Mary Wollstonecraft

strong-women independent life

The beginning is always today.

Mary Wollstonecraft

new-beginnings divorce inspiring

Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.

Mary Wollstonecraft

mother-and-daughter women mind

The more equality there is established among men, the more virtue and happiness will reign in society.

Mary Wollstonecraft

reign equality men

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

Mary Wollstonecraft

want men

Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify prejudices...rather than to root them out.

Mary Wollstonecraft

roots justice men

Only that education deserves emphatically to be termed cultivation of the mind which teaches young people how to begin to think.

Mary Wollstonecraft

education people thinking

Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, men are insultingly supporting their own superiority.

Mary Wollstonecraft

women sex thinking

Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in.

Mary Wollstonecraft

degrees education men

The appetites will rule if the mind is vacant.

Mary Wollstonecraft

vacant appetite mind

No man chooses evil because it's evil. He only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.

Mary Wollstonecraft

mistake happiness men

Let woman share the rights and she will emulate the virtues of man; for she must grow more perfect when emancipated.

Mary Wollstonecraft

rights perfect men

The being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason.

Mary Wollstonecraft

atheism literature reason

Taught from 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

infancy-is women beauty

Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all affections, because it is founded on principle, and cemented by time. The very reverse may be said of love. In a great degree, love and friendship cannot subsist in the same bosom; even when inspired by different objects they weaken or destroy each other, and for the same object can only be felt in succession. The vain fears and fond jealousies, the winds which fan the flame of love, when judiciously or artfully tempered, are both incompatible with the tender confidence and sincere respect of friendship.

Mary Wollstonecraft

flames wind friendship

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.

Mary Wollstonecraft

single blessing life

A modest man is steady, an humble man timid, and a vain one presumptuous.

Mary Wollstonecraft

vain humble men

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

Mary Wollstonecraft

sincerity simplicity hands

Women ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government.

Mary Wollstonecraft

women government share

Till women are more rationally educated, the progress in human virtue and improvement in knowledge must receive continual checks.

Mary Wollstonecraft

progress diversity justice