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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
Pain
Endure
May
Grief
Sin
Ought
Greatest
Pretence
Least
Lesser
Greater
Commit
Rather
Avoid

More quotes by 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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. . . 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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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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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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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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The scum of the People are most Tyrannical when they get the Power, and treat their Betters with the greatest Insolence.
Mary Astell
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Women are from their very infancy debarred those Advantages with the want of which they are afterwards reproached.
Mary Astell
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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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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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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
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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.
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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Ignorance and a narrow education lay the foundation of vice, and imitation and custom rear it up.
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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How can a Man respect his Wife when he has a contemptible Opinion of her and her Sex?
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
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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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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
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It is not the Head but the Heart that is the Seat of Atheism.
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