Mary Wollstonecraft

"The most refined education will not make a woman virtuous if she has not learned to think for herself."

"Female education should make women better friends, better mothers, better citizens."

"I wish to fix in my heart a conviction of the truth of all principles of virtue."

"It is the fear of despair which often strengthens the human heart in difficulties."

"No man has a right to obstruct the other in his pursuit of happiness."

"The most rude and savage of mankind, if caught young, can be civilized by proper education."

"A woman of sense and character should never be a vain creature."

"The improvement of the condition of women must be the means by which we improve the whole of society."

"A woman who has the misfortune of knowing that she was made to blush will find it almost impossible to overcome the feeling."

"Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue."

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

"Women are often one and twenty; but men are always men."

"The laws of nature are the laws of God, whose authority can be superseded by no power."

"If women are to be excluded from active life, they should not be educated as if they were to take an active part in it."

"I declare to you that female virtues are not absolutely necessary to women's safety, or to social order."

"Weaknesses and errors pave the way to truth, and often it is combined with trials and small miseries."

"A woman should have a profession as a man has."

"The mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest on."

"All the follies and crimes of men spring from cowardice and weakness."

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

"Ignorance is a frail base for virtue."

"Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man."

"I have turned over various ideas in my mind. Now I am convinced that the chief business of my life must be to open women's eyes."

"Do not attempt to screen your children from trials; it is only in the school of adversity that we learn anything of value."

"The mind is not sex-dependent, and intellectual attainments should not be denied to women."

"Civilized women are often weaker, more fractious, and less virtuous than savages."

"A tyrant is always surrounded by slaves who do him homage."

"The more understanding women acquire, the more they will perceive the necessity of virtue."

"I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body."

"Sensation and imagination were the basis and foundation of the moral sentiments and virtues."