Browse 7 quotations connecting Mary Wollstonecraft with Identity, with meanings, source notes and related themes.
Each quotation is included because its central idea connects with this theme, not simply because one matching word appears in the sentence.
Sources represented here include A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution. Keeping the work and source note beside each quotation makes differences in setting, speaker and emphasis easier to see.
Sources represented here include A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution.
“I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.”
The sentence defines empowerment as self-command rather than domination, centering education, judgment, and personal agency as the basis of freedom.
Source note: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Wollstonecraft distinguishes equality and self-government from power over others.
“I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body.”
Wollstonecraft rejects cultivated helplessness and argues for developing women's intellectual and physical capacities so they can stand as rational agents rather than depend on flattering ideals of weakness.
Source note: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Introduction; Project Gutenberg #3420. This is the opening portion of Wollstonecraft's longer sentence contrasting strength of mind and body with the period's sentimental ideal of feminine delicacy and dependence.
“They must only bow to the authority of reason, instead of being the modest slaves of opinion.”
Respectability is grounded in independent reasoning rather than deference to social opinion, making judgment more important than approval.
Source note: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Wollstonecraft explicitly connects independence of character with the exercise of understanding.
“To become respectable, the exercise of their understanding is necessary; there is no other foundation for independence of character.”
Independent character is presented as something built through trained understanding, not granted by status, appearance or approval.
Source note: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; the statement immediately precedes Wollstonecraft’s insistence on reason rather than opinion as authority.
“One principal of action is sufficient—Respect thyself.”
Wollstonecraft makes self-respect a moral standard rather than self-flattery: conduct should remain compatible with one’s own sense of truth and justice instead of being reorganized around gaining a respectable social position.
Source note: An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution, Project Gutenberg #68724. Wollstonecraft connects “Respect thyself” with religion, justice and self-love while criticizing social arrangements that encourage people to sacrifice truthful character for status.
“men with common minds seldom break through general rules.”
The travel reflection criticizes automatic conformity, suggesting that ordinary caution can keep people from testing whether a rule still makes sense in a particular situation.
Source note: Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Letter I; Wollstonecraft comments on a sea captain’s reluctance to depart from customary practice.
“What a long time it requires to know ourselves, and yet every one has more of this knowledge than he is willing to own.”
Self-knowledge develops slowly, and the second clause suggests that people may resist acknowledging what experience has already taught them about their own motives or limitations.
Source note: Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark; a first-person travel reflection on self-knowledge and experience.