Q0199

Mary Wollstonecraft

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.
Thinker Mary Wollstonecraft
School Feminist Philosophy
Source A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
Theme Autonomy
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), within the tradition of Feminist Philosophy. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of autonomy, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Mary Wollstonecraft's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Mary Wollstonecraft. (n.d.). I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0199

MLA: Mary Wollstonecraft. “I do not wish them to have power….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0199.

Chicago: Mary Wollstonecraft. “I do not wish them to have power….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0199.

Same theme

More on autonomy

  1. All else belongs to others; time alone is ours.
  2. Claim yourself for yourself.
  3. The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.
  4. Enlightenment is the human being's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity.
  5. That little bit of innate knowing of yours is your own criterion.

Browse the autonomy theme