Quote

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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Mary Astell
Age: 64 †
Born: 1666
Born: November 12
Died: 1731
Died: May 11
Feminist
Philosopher
Writer
Newcastle
Business
Crowds
Flown
Body
Absence
Frequent
Come
Kept
Whilst
Every
Delight
Delights
Mind
Loves
Confined
Conversation
Contemplating
Present
Hence
Absences
Company
Midst
Observable

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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 a Man respect his Wife when he has a contemptible Opinion of her and her Sex?
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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.
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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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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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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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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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God is His own Design and End, and that there is no other Worthy of Him.
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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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Every Body has so good an Opinion of their own Understanding as to think their own way the best.
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friendship is a virtue which comprehends all the rest none being fit for this, who is not adorned with every other virtue.
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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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But, alas! what poor Woman is ever taught that she should have a higher Design than to get her a Husband?
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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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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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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.
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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 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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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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