Q0504
“Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes…” — Mary Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the Rights of…)
Verified English quotation. Primary source: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Ch. 3. Theme: education.
English
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.
Source and attribution
The archive attributes this English wording to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Ch. 3 and files it under Feminist Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
About Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) was an English radical writer whose A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) founded modern liberal feminist argument. She wrote on education, the French Revolution, and travel, and mixed in Dissenting and Jacobin circles.
How to read this passage
Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Mary Wollstonecraft and Plato), education is framed through Platonism and Renaissance Humanism. Some passages define education; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through education, nature, freedom.
Concepts in this quote
- Education
- Education appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat education as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
- Nature
- Philosophy quotes about nature ask what the cosmos is, how humans belong in it, and whether “natural” can guide ethics or politics.
- Freedom
- Freedom is among the most searched and most contested themes in philosophy: what it is to choose, to be responsible, and to live without illegitimate constraint.
How to cite this quotation
APA: Mary Wollstonecraft. (n.d.). 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. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0504
MLA: Mary Wollstonecraft. “Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0504.
Chicago: Mary Wollstonecraft. “Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0504.
Frequently asked questions
What is the source of the quotation “Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's…”?
The passage is attributed to Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Ch. 3. The archive attributes this English wording to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Ch. 3 and files it under Feminist Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
What does Mary Wollstonecraft mean by education?
Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Mary Wollstonecraft and Plato), education is framed through Platonism and Renaissance Humanism. Some passages define education; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through education, nature, freedom.