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Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes

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Mary Wollstonecraft, born on April 27, 1759, and died on September 10, 1797, was an influential English writer, philosopher, and feminist. She is best known for her work 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman', which challenged the gender roles and social structures of her time.

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Famous Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes

“In this metropolis a number of lurking leeches infamously gain subsistence by practicing on the credulity of women.”

Numbers Atheism Gains Positive Atheism Credulity Lurking Subsistence Metropolis Leeches

Book:A Vindication of the Rights of Women

Source: A Vindication of the Rights of Women

“What, but the rapacity of the only men who exercised their reason, the priests, secured such vast property to the church, when a man gave his perishable substance to save himself from the dark torments of purgatory; and found it more convenient to indulge his depraved appetites, and pay an exorbitant price for absolution, than listen to the suggestions of reason, and work out his own salvation: in a word, was not the separation of religion from morality the work of the priests...?”

Source: The Vindications: The Rights of Men and The Rights of Woman

“Men neglect the duties incumbent on man, yet are treated like demi-gods; religion is also separated from morality by a ceremonial veil, yet men wonder that the world is almost, literally speaking, a den of sharpers or oppressors.”

Men World Wonder Atheism Duty Morality Positive Atheism Treated Neglect Veils Oppressors Incumbents Dens

Book:A Vindication of the Rights of Men; A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution

Source: A Vindication of the Rights of Men; A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution

“Man preys on man; and you mourn for the idle tapestry that decorated a gothic pillar, and the dronish bell that summoned the fat priest to prayer. You mourn for the empty pageant of a name, when slavery flaps her wing, ... Why is our fancy to be appalled by terrific perspectives of a hell beyond the grave? - Hell stalks abroad; - the lash resounds on the slave's naked sides; and the sick wretch, who can no longer earn the sour bread of unremitting labour, steals to a ditch to bid the world a long good night.”

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

Reason Literature Atheism Authority Rational Virtuous Vindication

Book:A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Source: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

“Slavery to monarchs and ministers, which the world will be long freeing itself from, and whose deadly grasp stops the progress of the human mind, is not yet abolished.”

World Mind Humans Long Literature Progress Atheism Slavery Ministers Human Mind Reincarnation Monarchs

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Mary Wollstonecraft (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Mary Wollstonecraft (Illustrated)

“In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason.”

Reason Facts Results Virtue Atheism Exercise Positive Atheism Virtuous Farce

Book:A vindication of the rights of woman: with strictures on political and moral subjects

Source: A vindication of the rights of woman: with strictures on political and moral subjects