Browse 10 quotations connecting Mary Wollstonecraft with Independence, with meanings, source notes and related themes.
Sources represented here include A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, A Vindication of the Rights of Men, An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution.
“I contend for the rights of men and the liberty of reason.”
The line joins political rights with intellectual liberty: the argument is not merely for a different ruler but for people’s capacity to reason without inherited deference.
A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening letter to Edmund Burke; Wollstonecraft frames the pamphlet as a defense of human rights and the liberty of reason.
“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.
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.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Introduction, Project Gutenberg #3420. The frozen quotation 'I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body' is a clause from a longer sentence beginning 'I earnestly wish to point out...' and continuing through Wollstonecraft's criticism of delicacy and weakness as feminine ideals. It remains eighteenth-century feminist political-moral argument rather than a modern clinical or physiological prescription.
“Make them free, and they will quickly become wise and virtuous, as men become more so.”
Freedom and development are linked: people become more capable by exercising reason and responsibility, not by being kept dependent for their supposed protection.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, concluding discussion of women as rational citizens and the mutual improvement of both sexes.
“Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.”
Education enlarges judgment and weakens obedience based only on power, making intellectual development a condition of genuine independence.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Wollstonecraft argues that deliberately narrowing women’s education preserves dependence and obedience.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Letter I; represented Cassell & Company 1889 text in Project Gutenberg #3529, preserving Wollstonecraft’s 1796 travel-letter work. After describing the customary maritime rule against sending out a boat, Wollstonecraft says that “men with common minds seldom break through general rules” while criticizing the captain’s reluctance to depart from convention. This is a first-person travel judgment about a particular situation, not a general empirical claim about ordinary people.
“I wish them to be taught to think.”
Education should produce independent judgment rather than polished imitation, so the ability to think becomes more important than accumulating accomplishments for display.
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787), “MORAL DISCIPLINE,” beginning on printed page 22, Project Gutenberg #67466. “I wish them to be taught to think” follows Wollstonecraft’s recommendation that children compare similar and different ideas; the sentence continues into the next printed page and remains historical educational reform argument.
