A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Marriage Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

Children, he truly observes, form a much more permanent connexion between married people than love. (5.54)

Wollstonecraft agrees that in many cases, children keep marriages together more than love does. But if this is the case, what happens once the children get old and move away? For Wollstonecraft, this is why there needs to be true friendship and mutual respect between a husband and wife.

Quote #8

In the choice of a husband, they should not be led astray by the qualities of a lover—for a lover the husband, even supposing him to be wise and virtuous, cannot long remain. (6.14)

Wollstonecraft warns women against marrying for love, since she doesn't believe that love (at least the sexual kind) can last more than a year. For her, only respect for a person's mind can sustain a marriage in the long run.

Quote #9

To say the truth women are, in general, too familiar with each other, which leads to that gross degree of familiarity that so frequently renders the marriage state unhappy. (7.24)

Wollstonecraft hates the fact that women can't be friends with men, since she feels that too much friendship between women can actually lead to horrible things. She's a little bit vague on what these horrible things are, but oh well. That just gives us lots of room to speculate.