Mary Wollstonecraft - Society Quotes

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Till society is very differently constituted, parents, I fear, will still insist on being obeyed because they will be obeyed, and constantly endeavor to settle that power on a divine right which will not bear the investigation of reason.

Mary Wollstonecraft
Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in.

Mary Wollstonecraft
There must be more equality established in society, or morality will never gain ground, and this virtuous equakity will not rest firmly even when founded on a rock, if one half of mankind be chained to its bottom by fate, for they will be continually undermining it through ignorance or pride

Mary Wollstonecraft
Love from its very nature must be transitory. To seek for a secret that would render it constant would be as wild a search as for the philosopher's stone or the grand panacea: and the discovery would be equally useless, or rather pernicious to mankind. The most holy band of society is friendship.

Mary Wollstonecraft
I do earnestly wish to see the distinction of sex confounded in society, unless where love animates the behaviour.

Mary Wollstonecraft
Perhaps the seeds of false-refinement, immorality, and vanity, have ever been shed by the great. Weak, artificial beings, raised above the common wants and defections of their race, in a premature and unnatural manner, undermine the very foundation of virtue, and spread corruption through the whole mass of society!

Mary Wollstonecraft
The more equality there is established among men, the more virtue and happiness will reign in society.

Mary Wollstonecraft
What but a pestilential vapour can hover over society when its chief director is only instructed in the invention of crimes, or the stupid routine of childish ceremonies?

Mary Wollstonecraft
The same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain would have rendered him useful to society, had that society been well organized.

Mary Wollstonecraft
Men endeavor to sink us still lower, merely to render us alluring objects for a moment; and women, intoxicated by the adoration which men, under the influence of their senses, pay them, do not seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts, or to become the friends of the fellow creatures who find amusement in their society.

Mary Wollstonecraft
Society can only be happy and free in proportion as it is virtuous.

Mary Wollstonecraft
To improve both sexes they ought, not only in private families, but in public schools, to be educated together. If marriage be the cement of society, mankind should all be educated after the same model, or the intercourse of the sexes will never deserve the name of fellowship...

Mary Wollstonecraft