Quote

“

We encourage a vicious indolence and inactivity, which we falsely call delicacy; instead of hardening their minds by the severer principles of reason and philosophy, we breed them to useless arts, which terminate in vanity and sensuality.

— Mary Wollstonecraft

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What does this quotation mean?

From Chapter 3 of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Read the surrounding argument as well as the excerpt; its historical language and philosophical assumptions shape its meaning.

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Source: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman , Chapter 3

Edition: English electronic text

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From A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Excerpt checked against the linked public-domain English edition. Korean rendering and context note by Quotations; not an authorized translation. Historical punctuation is retained; line breaks and editorial footnote markers are normalized.

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