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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

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Mary Astell
Age: 64 †
Born: 1666
Born: November 12
Died: 1731
Died: May 11
Feminist
Philosopher
Writer
Newcastle
Light
Prejudice
Excite
Truth
Reasons
Prejudices
Government
Subject
Rhetoric
Reason
Subjects
Reduce
Right
Design
Passions
Way
Passion
Consideration
Lying
Remove
Place
Dues
Hearers

More quotes by Mary Astell

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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.
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. . . he who only or chiefly chose for Beauty, will in a little Time find the same Reason for another Choice.
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Women need not take up with mean things, since (if they are not wanting to themselves) they are capable of the best.
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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.
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We must Think what we Say, and Mean what we Profess.
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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.
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The scum of the People are most Tyrannical when they get the Power, and treat their Betters with the greatest Insolence.
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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.
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Unhappy is that Grandeur which makes us too great to be good and that Wit which sets us at a distance from true Wisdom.
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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.
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It is not the Head but the Heart that is the Seat of Atheism.
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Women are from their very infancy debarred those Advantages with the want of which they are afterwards reproached.
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Certain I am, that Christian Religion does no where allow Rebellion.
Mary Astell
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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.
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If a Woman can neither Love nor Honour, she does ill in promising to Obey.
Mary Astell
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But, alas! what poor Woman is ever taught that she should have a higher Design than to get her a Husband?
Mary Astell
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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
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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
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Ignorance and a narrow education lay the foundation of vice, and imitation and custom rear it up.
Mary Astell
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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?
Mary Astell