Quote

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

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Mary Astell
Age: 64 †
Born: 1666
Born: November 12
Died: 1731
Died: May 11
Feminist
Philosopher
Writer
Newcastle
Giving
Difficulty
Hitherto
Kind
Trouble
Assist
Passion
Discouragement
Knowledge
Attainment
Woman
Difficulties
Thought
Unnecessary
Truth
Accomplishment
Discouragements
Give
Spite
Courted

More quotes by Mary Astell

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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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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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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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Every Body has so good an Opinion of their own Understanding as to think their own way the best.
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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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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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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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God is His own Design and End, and that there is no other Worthy of Him.
Mary Astell
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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.
Mary Astell
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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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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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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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Women need not take up with mean things, since (if they are not wanting to themselves) they are capable of the best.
Mary Astell
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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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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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. . . he who only or chiefly chose for Beauty, will in a little Time find the same Reason for another Choice.
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
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How can a Man respect his Wife when he has a contemptible Opinion of her and her Sex?
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.
Mary Astell
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Certain I am, that Christian Religion does no where allow Rebellion.
Mary Astell