Mary Wollstonecraft

A woman who has been taught to think, will not be afraid to act.

The most respectable women are the most oppressed.

Liberty is the mother of virtue.

I love man as my fellow; but his sceptre, 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.

The great end of living is to unfold our faculties, to acquire knowledge, and to discharge our duties.

It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men.

Ignorance is a frail base for virtue.

The most perfect education, in my opinion, is such an exercise of the understanding as is best calculated to strengthen the body and form the heart.

I am not born to tread in the beaten track.

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

The desire of being always women, is the very thing that makes them useless members of society.

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

The true perfection of man consists in the exercise of his reason, and the cultivation of his understanding.

I have always been of opinion that the only way to make a woman a good wife and mother, is to make her a rational creature.

The education of women has been a subject of much discussion; but it has generally been treated as a matter of taste, or of convenience, not of justice.

I am not afraid of the word 'reason.' I am not afraid of the word 'virtue.'

It is a melancholy truth, that the most respectable women are the most oppressed.

I have ever been of opinion, that the only way to make a woman a good wife and mother, is to make her a rational creature.

Taught from their 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.

The beginning of reform is the purification of religion.