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

Mary Astell

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Mary Astell
Age: 64 †
Born: 1666
Born: November 12
Died: 1731
Died: May 11
Feminist
Philosopher
Writer
Newcastle
Men
Slaves
Slave
Birth
Free
Born
Women

More quotes by 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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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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. . . he who only or chiefly chose for Beauty, will in a little Time find the same Reason for another Choice.
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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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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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We must Think what we Say, and Mean what we Profess.
Mary Astell
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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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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 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.
Mary Astell
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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.
Mary Astell
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Every Body has so good an Opinion of their own Understanding as to think their own way the best.
Mary Astell
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God is His own Design and End, and that there is no other Worthy of Him.
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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.
Mary Astell
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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.
Mary Astell
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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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Ignorance and a narrow education lay the foundation of vice, and imitation and custom rear it up.
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.
Mary Astell
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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