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.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
Modesty is the graceful, calm virtue of maturity; bashfulness the charm of vivacious youth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Modesty reflects maturity, while bashfulness signifies youthful charm.
In this quote, Mary Wollstonecraft highlights the importance of modesty as a sign of maturity and grace, contrasting it with bashfulness, which she associates with the energy and charm of youth. This distinction emphasizes how personal virtues evolve over time, suggesting that modesty embodies a deeper understanding and calmness that comes with age, while bashfulness represents the vivacity and innocence typically attributed to younger individuals.
Themes
ModestyBashfulnessMaturityYouthVirtue
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about personal development, one could quote this to emphasize the value of modesty as one matures.
More from Mary Wollstonecraft
All quotes βMake 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.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
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.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
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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