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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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Mary Astell
Age: 64 †
Born: 1666
Born: November 12
Died: 1731
Died: May 11
Feminist
Philosopher
Writer
Newcastle
Lays
Foundation
Rear
Ignorance
Custom
Education
Imitation
Narrow
Customs
Vice
Vices

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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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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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Women are from their very infancy debarred those advantages with the want of which they are aftewards reproached, and nursed up in those vices which will hereafter be upbraided to them. So partial are men as to expect bricks when they afford no straw.
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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.
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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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Whilst our Hearts are violently set upon any thing, there is no convincing us that we shall ever be of another Mind.
Mary Astell
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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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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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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.
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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?
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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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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
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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.
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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
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God is His own Design and End, and that there is no other Worthy of Him.
Mary Astell
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We must Think what we Say, and Mean what we Profess.
Mary Astell
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A woman indeed can't properly be said to choose, all that is allowed her, is to refuse or accept what is offered.
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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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It is not the Head but the Heart that is the Seat of Atheism.
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Every Body has so good an Opinion of their own Understanding as to think their own way the best.
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