Quotes By Mary Astell
'Tis very great pity that they who are so apt to over-rate themselves in smaller matters, shou'd, where it most concerns them to know, and stand upon their Value, be so insensible of their own worth.
Mary Astell
Nor can the Apostle mean that Eve only sinned; or that she only was Deceived, for if Adam sinned willfully and knowingly, he became the greater Transgressor.
Mary Astell
None of us whether Men or Women but have so good an Opinion of our own Conduct as to believe we are fit, if not to direct others, at least to govern our selves.
Mary Astell
The Span of Life is too short to be trifled away in unconcerning and unprofitable Matters.
Mary Astell
The Relation we bear to the Wisdom of the Father, the Son of His Love, gives us indeed a dignity which otherwise we have no pretence to. It makes us something, something considerable even in God's Eyes.
Mary Astell
The design of Rhetoric is to remove those Prejudices that lie in the way of Truth, to Reduce the Passions to the Government of Reasons; to place our Subject in a Right Light, and excite our Hearers to a due consideration of it.
Mary Astell
He who will be just, must be forc'd to acknowledge, that neither Sex are always in the right.
Mary Astell
Women are not so well united as to form an Insurrection. They are for the most part wise enough to love their Chains, and to discern how becomingly they fit.
Mary Astell
If none were to Marry, but Men of strict Vertue and Honour, I doubt the World would be but thinly peopled.
Mary Astell
How can you be content to be in the world like tulips in a garden, to make a fine show, and be good for nothing.
Mary Astell
The scum of the People are most Tyrannical when they get the Power, and treat their Betters with the greatest Insolence.
Mary Astell
Marry for Love, an Heroick Action, which makes a mighty noise in the World, partly because of its rarity, and partly in regard of its extravagancy.
Mary Astell
Every one knows, that the mind will not be kept from contemplating what it loves in the midst of crowds and business. Hence come those frequent absences, so observable in conversation; for whilst the body is confined to present company, the mind is flown to that which it delights in.
Mary Astell
That Man indeed can never be good at heart, who is full of himself and his own Endowments.
Mary Astell
Whilst our Hearts are violently set upon any thing, there is no convincing us that we shall ever be of another Mind.
Mary Astell
Upon the principles of reason, the good of many is preferable to the good of a few or of one; a lasting good is to be preferred before a temporary, the public before the private.
Mary Astell
Although it has been said by men of more wit than wisdom, and perhaps more malice than either, that women are naturally incapable of acting prudently, or that they are necessarily determined to folly, I must by no means grant it.
Mary Astell
We all agree that its fit to be as Happy as we can, and we need no Instructor to teach us this Knowledge, 'tis born with us, and is inseparable from our Being, but we very much need to be Inform'd what is the true Way to Happiness.
Mary Astell
Women need not take up with mean things, since (if they are not wanting to themselves) they are capable of the best.
Mary Astell
We may not commit a lesser Sin under pretence to avoid a greater, but we may, nay we ought to endure the greatest Pain and Grief rather than commit the least Sin.
Mary Astell
Hitherto I have courted Truth with a kind of Romantick Passion, in spite of all Difficulties and Discouragements: for knowledge is thought so unnecessary an Accomplishment for a Woman, that few will give themselves the Trouble to assist us in the Attainment of it.
Mary Astell