Sentence No. 35 · 1 May 2026
I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Mary Wollstonecraft — A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) · Read it at Project Gutenberg
What holds this sentence together
The semicolon here splits the sentence, but notice that "but over themselves" is not a full independent clause — it's a deliberate fragment. Whenever you see a short phrase like "but over themselves," it completes the thought from the clause before the semicolon, not a new one.
How it appears in Sentle
On Sentle this sentence arrives in 6 pieces, shuffled, with the lines that lead up to it for context. Wollstonecraft argues against the sentimental education given to women — an education that flatters weakness instead of cultivating strength. Putting it back in the author’s order is the puzzle — and the order is rarely arbitrary, which is what the note above is about.
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