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 WollstonecraftNo man chooses evil because it's evil. He only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.
Mary WollstonecraftThe being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason.
Mary WollstonecraftHow can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions?
Mary WollstonecraftTaught 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. Men have various employments and pursuits which engage their attention, and give a character to the opening mind; but women, confined to one, and having their thoughts constantly directed to the most insignificant part of themselves, seldom extend their views beyond the triumph of the hour.
Mary Wollstonecraft