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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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Mary Astell
Age: 64 †
Born: 1666
Born: November 12
Died: 1731
Died: May 11
Feminist
Philosopher
Writer
Newcastle
May
Grief
Sin
Ought
Greatest
Pretence
Least
Lesser
Greater
Commit
Rather
Avoid
Pain
Endure
More quotes by Mary Astell
The scum of the People are most Tyrannical when they get the Power, and treat their Betters with the greatest Insolence.
Mary Astell
Women need not take up with mean things, since (if they are not wanting to themselves) they are capable of the best.
Mary Astell
But, alas! what poor Woman is ever taught that she should have a higher Design than to get her a Husband?
Mary Astell
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
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
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.
Mary Astell
If a Woman can neither Love nor Honour, she does ill in promising to Obey.
Mary Astell
Whilst our Hearts are violently set upon any thing, there is no convincing us that we shall ever be of another Mind.
Mary Astell
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.
Mary Astell
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
Ignorance and a narrow education lay the foundation of vice, and imitation and custom rear it up.
Mary Astell
How can a Man respect his Wife when he has a contemptible Opinion of her and her Sex?
Mary Astell
A woman indeed can't properly be said to choose, all that is allowed her, is to refuse or accept what is offered.
Mary Astell
If all men are born free, why is it that all women are born slaves?
Mary Astell
God is His own Design and End, and that there is no other Worthy of Him.
Mary Astell
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
We must Think what we Say, and Mean what we Profess.
Mary Astell
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.
Mary Astell
Women are from their very infancy debarred those Advantages with the want of which they are afterwards reproached.
Mary Astell
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
