Quotes · Quote card
Quotation from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
“Taught 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.”
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Ch. 3 (Project Gutenberg text)
The best-known image of the book, describing how an education in appearance confines the mind.
Citation: "Taught 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." — Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Ch. 3 (Project Gutenberg text). (id vindication-of-the-rights-of-woman-q3)
Portrait: Mary Wollstonecraft by John Opie (c. 1797), John Opie, Public domain.
