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It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world.
Mary Wollstonecraft
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The world needs fairness and equality more than mere acts of kindness or charity.

Mary Wollstonecraft emphasizes the importance of justice over charity in societal progress. While charity can provide temporary relief, it is the establishment of fair systems and equitable treatment that will lead to long-term solutions for the issues we face. A truly just society addresses the root causes of inequality and injustice rather than merely offering handouts.

Themes

JusticeCharityEqualitySocietyFairness

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about social issues, one might say, 'As Mary Wollstonecraft pointed out, it is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world.'

More from Mary Wollstonecraft

Taught from 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.
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Make women rational creatures, and free citizens, and they will quickly become good wives; - that is, if men do not neglect the duties of husbands and fathers.
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But what a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis!
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The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger.
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Women are degraded by the propensity to enjoy the present moment, and, at last, despise the freedom which they have not sufficient virtue to struggle to attain.
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Perhaps the seeds of false-refinement, immorality, and vanity, have ever been shed by the great. Weak, artificial beings, raised above the common wants and defections of their race, in a premature and unnatural manner, undermine the very foundation of virtue, and spread corruption through the whole mass of society!
Mary WollstonecraftRead

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