Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes

The beginning is always today.

Nothing, I am sure, calls forth the faculties so much as the being obliged to struggle with the world; and this is not a woman's province in a married state. Her sphere of action is not large, and if she is not taught to look into her own heart, how trivial are her occupations and pursuits! What little arts engross and narrow her mind!

You know I am not born to tread in the beaten track — the peculiar bent of my nature pushes me on.

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

Virtue can only flourish amongst equals.

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.

Every political good carried to the extreme must be productive of evil.

The endeavor to keep alive any hoary establishment beyond its natural date is often pernicious and always useless.

I write in a hurry, because the little one, who has been sleeping a long time, begins to call for me. Poor thing! when I am sad, I lament that all my affections grow on me, till they become too strong for my peace, though they all afford me snatches of exquisite enjoyment.