Mary Wollstonecraft

“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.”

“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”

“Virtue can only flourish among equals.”

“The beginning is always today.”

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

“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 divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is to be hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger.”

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

“How can a rational being be ennobled by anything that is not obtained by its own exertions?”

“My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces.”

“Let woman share the rights and she will emulate the virtues of man; for she must grow more perfect when emancipated.”

“It is time to effect a revolution in female manners — time to restore to them their lost dignity.”

“Make women rational creatures, and free citizens, and they will quickly become good wives.”

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

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