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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

“Women are, in fact, so much degraded by mistaken notions of female excellence, that I do not mean to add a paradox when I assert, that this artificial weakness produces a propensity to tyrannize, and gives birth to cunning, the natural opponent of strength, which leads them to play off those contemptible infantile airs that undermine esteem even whilst they excite desire.”

Women Feminism Weakness Woman Womanhood Women S Rights Femininity

Book:A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Source: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

“I am a strange compound of weakness and resolution! However, if I must suffer, I will endeavour to suffer in silence. There is certainly a great defect in my mind my wayward heart creates its own misery Why I am made thus I cannot tell; and, till I can form some idea of the whole of my existence, I must be content to weep and dance like a child long for a toy, and be tired of it as soon as I get it.”

Ifs Mind Heart Children Long Made I Can Ideas Whole Form Suffering Existence Silence Strange Weakness Tired Misery Resolution Toys Defects Compounds Endeavour

Author:Mary Wollstonecraft

“Women deluded by these sentiments, sometimes boast of their weakness, cunningly obtaining power by playing on the weakness of men; and they may well glory in their illicit sway, for, like Turkish bashaws, they have more real power than their masters: but virtue is sacrificed to temporary gratifications, and the respectability of life to the triumph of an hour.”

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

“Men with common minds seldom break through general rules. Prudence is ever the resort of weakness; and they rarely go as far as as they may in any undertaking, who are determined not to go beyond it on any account.”

Men Mind May Common Break Weakness Accounts Determined Resorts Prudence Undertakings Break Through

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Mary Wollstonecraft (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Mary Wollstonecraft (Illustrated)

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

Men Should Children Women Term Weakness Innocent Innocence Grants Epithet

Book:Vindication of the Rights of Women

Source: Vindication of the Rights of Women

“I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists. I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings are only the objects of pity, and that kind of love which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt.”

Source: Mary, A Fiction and The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria

“Weakness may excite tenderness, and gratify the arrogant pride of man; but the lordly caresses of a protector will not gratify a noble mind that pants for, and deserves to be respected. Fondness is a poor substitute for friendship.”

Men Mind May Poor Pride Weakness Deserve Noble Substitutes Pants Arrogant Tenderness Protector Caress Fondness

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

“It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meannesses, cares, and sorrows into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion that they were created rather to feel than reason, and that all the power they obtain must be obtained by their charms and weaknesses.”

Feels Reason Would Be Care Justice Opinion Sorrow Diversity Weakness Tasks Social Justice Endless Variety Charm Prevailing Meanness

Author:Mary Wollstonecraft