Mary Wollstonecraft

"Children will always be tyrants if they feel that any fear stands between them and their own will."

"Asserting the rights which women in common with men ought to contend for, I have not attempted to extenuate their faults."

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

"Women ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without any direct share allowed them in the deliberations concerning their own happiness."

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

"I have never yet met with a man who could support a conversation on any subject for ten minutes without reference to his own profession."

"The only path of salvation was through education, which opens the eyes of the understanding."

"Wealth does not consist in having great possessions, but in having few wants."

"A tyrant custom has forced women to be decorous, and this false respect paid to the sex has rendered it contemptible."

"The exercise of power over others tends to corrupt the character of those who wield it."

"I am fully convinced that it is the fear of offending which makes the generality of people lose their independence of mind."

"If women are to be made virtuous by authority which is a contradiction in terms, let them be immured in seraglios and denied education."

"The mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest on, and the blindest obedience is that which results from fear."

"Woman is the companion of man and her dignity is connected with that of man."

"How great a proportion of the misery springing from the inequality of condition has originated in the negligence of parents!"

"I love man as my fellow; but his scepter, real or usurped, extends not over me."

"The most unhappy of all men, under the pressure of ill luck, never stood so much in need of sympathy as the man who is paying the price of his own folly."

"Slaves and mobs have never yet framed a free government."

"The person who can most effectively shake the opinions of another is the one who can make the subject of debate appear in a new light."

"A being who hates to submit has naturally some quality of greatness."

"The same energy of character which renders a man a daring adventurer, makes him a reckless husband."

"Cunning is the virtue of the weak."

"How greatly are the ignorant deceived in supposing that the company of the virtuous will reform the vicious!"

"The faculties which are cultivated in one sex are left uncultivated in the other, and the perfection of the whole is lost."

"Women might certainly study the art of healing, and be physicians, as well as nurses."

"Obedience, unconditional obedience, is the only doctrine taught to women."

"It is the power of the mind which exalts and enlarges the human character."

"A woman who strives to act in direct opposition to the dictates of nature is acting against herself."

"The greatest respect which I can entertain towards any one is that which results from a firm belief of their honesty."

"Until women are led to exercise their understandings, they will remain the slaves of ignorance."