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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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Mary Astell
Age: 64 †
Born: 1666
Born: November 12
Died: 1731
Died: May 11
Feminist
Philosopher
Writer
Newcastle
Things
Capable
Since
Women
Best
Need
Take
Mean
Needs
Wanting

More quotes by Mary Astell

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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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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?
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If all men are born free, why is it that all women are born slaves?
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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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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 scum of the People are most Tyrannical when they get the Power, and treat their Betters with the greatest Insolence.
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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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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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It is not the Head but the Heart that is the Seat of Atheism.
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God is His own Design and End, and that there is no other Worthy of Him.
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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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Certain I am, that Christian Religion does no where allow Rebellion.
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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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We must Think what we Say, and Mean what we Profess.
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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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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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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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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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. . . he who only or chiefly chose for Beauty, will in a little Time find the same Reason for another Choice.
Mary Astell