Quotes By Mary Astell

He who will be just, must be forc'd to acknowledge, that neither Sex are always in the right.

The scum of the People are most Tyrannical when they get the Power, and treat their Betters with the greatest Insolence.

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.

If a Woman can neither Love nor Honour, she does ill in promising to Obey.

If none were to Marry, but Men of strict Vertue and Honour, I doubt the World would be but thinly peopled.

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.

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.

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.

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.

That Man indeed can never be good at heart, who is full of himself and his own Endowments.

If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?

Whilst our Hearts are violently set upon any thing, there is no convincing us that we shall ever be of another Mind.

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.

The Soul debases her self, when she sets her affections on any thing but her creator.

Certain I am, that Christian Religion does no where allow Rebellion.

God is His own Design and End, and that there is no other Worthy of Him.

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.

Women need not take up with mean things, since (if they are not wanting to themselves) they are capable of the best.

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.

It is not the Head but the Heart that is the Seat of Atheism.

But, alas! what poor Woman is ever taught that she should have a higher Design than to get her a Husband?

For certainly there cannot be a higher pleasure than to think that we love and are beloved by the most amiable and best Being.

To all the rest of his Absurdities, (for vice is always unreasonable,) he adds one more, who expects that Vertue from another which he won't practise himself.

Why is Slavery so much condemn'd and strove against in one Case, and so highly applauded and held so necessary and so sacred in another?

How can a Man respect his Wife when he has a contemptible Opinion of her and her Sex?

If God had not intended that Women shou'd use their Reason, He wou'd not have given them any, 'for He does nothing in vain.'

The Steps to Folly as well as Sin are gradual, and almost imperceptible, and when we are once on the Decline, we go down without taking notice on't.

Unhappy is that Grandeur which makes us too great to be good; and that Wit which sets us at a distance from true Wisdom.

Ignorance and a narrow education lay the foundation of vice, and imitation and custom rear it up.

Women are from their very infancy debarred those Advantages with the want of which they are afterwards reproached.