57 Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes from the English Writer

Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer and a key advocate for women’s equality best known for her 1792 work “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.”

This groundbreaking book argued for equal education for women and their right to participate fully in society.

Wollstonecraft’s life included work as a teacher and governess a stint in revolutionary France and a troubled personal life including two suicide attempts.

Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes

Her ideas significantly influenced later feminists and her daughter Mary Shelley became famous for writing “Frankenstein.”

Wollstonecraft’s life was often overshadowed by her personal controversies until the resurgence of interest in her feminist contributions in the late 20th century.

Here is an amazing collection of quotes by Mary Wollstonecraft.


Best Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes

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

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You know I am not born to tread in the beaten track the peculiar bent of my nature pushes me on. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

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Virtue can only flourish among equals. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

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

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The appetites will rule if the mind is vacant. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

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.

Only by the jostlings of equality can we form a just opinion of ourselves. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

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Modesty is the graceful, calm virtue of maturity; bashfulness the charm of vivacious youth. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all affections, because it is founded on principle, and cemented by time. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

The absurd duty, too often inculcated, of obeying a parent only on account of his being a parent, shackles the mind, and prepares it for a slavish submission to any power but reason. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

Women are degraded by the propensity to enjoy the present moment, and, at last, despise the freedom which they have not sufficient virtue to struggle to attain. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

Top Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes

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Children, I grant, should be innocent; but when the epithet is applied to men, or women, it is but a civil term for weakness. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

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All the sacred rights of humanity are violated by insisting on blind obedience. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

A war, or any wild-goose chase, is, as the vulgar use the phrase, a lucky turn-up of patronage for the minister, whose chief merit is the art of keeping himself in place. ~ 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.

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Fondness is a poor substitute for friendship. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

Some women govern their husbands without degrading themselves, because intellect will always govern. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

Age demands respect; youth, love. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

Famous Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes

The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

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It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

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.

We reason deeply, when we forcibly feel. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

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Society can only be happy and free in proportion as it is virtuous. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

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

Popular Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes

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

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

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A little patience and all will be over. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

The mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest on, and the current will run with destructive fury when there are no barriers to break its force. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

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

People thinking for themselves have more energy in their voice, than any government, which it is possible for human wisdom to invent; and every government not aware of this sacred truth will, at some period, be suddenly overturned. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

From the respect paid to property flow, as from a poisoned fountain, most of the evils and vices which render this world such a dreary scene to the contemplative mind. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

Wise Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes

The mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest on. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

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Errors are often useful, but it is commonly to remedy other errors. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

Solitude and reflection are necessary to give to wishes the force of passions. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

When man, governed by reasonable laws, enjoys his natural freedom, let him despise woman, if she do not share it with him. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

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. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable – and life is more than a dream. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

Nothing, I am sure, calls forth the faculties so much as the being obliged to struggle with the world. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

Make women rational creatures, and free citizens, and they will quickly become good wives; – that is, if men do not neglect the duties of husbands and fathers. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

Great Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes

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Like the flowers that are planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed to beauty. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

Women all want to be ladies, which is simply to have nothing to do, but listlessly to go they scarcely care where, for they cannot tell what. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

The graceful ivy, clasping the oak that supported it, would form a whole in which strength and beauty would be equally conspicuous. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

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

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

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

At boarding schools of every description, the relaxation of the junior boys is mischief; and of the senior, vice. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.

I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft.


So these were the 57 top quotes about Mary Wollstonecraft.

If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Bryson Tiller quotes and Jeff Goldblum quotes.

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Chandan Negi
Chandan Negi

I’m the Founder of Internet Pillar - I love sharing quotes and motivational content to inspire and motivate people - #quotes #motivation #internetpillar