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
But what a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis!
Interpretation
What this quote means
Truth can be easily overlooked when it conflicts with preconceived ideas or hypotheses.
This quote by Mary Wollstonecraft suggests that when faced with a hypothesis, people may disregard the truth, showing how subjectivity can manipulate one's understanding of reality. It highlights the struggle between empirical evidence and personal beliefs, emphasizing the weakness of truth when it challenges established notions.
Themes
TruthHypothesisBeliefEvidencePerception
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a debate about scientific integrity.
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.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
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
It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meannesses, cares, and sorrows into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion that they were created rather to feel than reason, and that all the power they obtain must be obtained by their charms and weaknesses.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
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