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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.

Mary Astell

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Mary Astell
Age: 64 †
Born: 1666
Born: November 12
Died: 1731
Died: May 11
Feminist
Philosopher
Writer
Newcastle
Refuse
Indeed
Accept
Choose
Accepting
Woman
Offered
Properly
Allowed

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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.
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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.
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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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Ignorance and a narrow education lay the foundation of vice, and imitation and custom rear it up.
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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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Every Body has so good an Opinion of their own Understanding as to think their own way the best.
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It is not the Head but the Heart that is the Seat of Atheism.
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If all men are born free, why is it that all women are born slaves?
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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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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.
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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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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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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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God is His own Design and End, and that there is no other Worthy of Him.
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Certain I am, that Christian Religion does no where allow Rebellion.
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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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. . . he who only or chiefly chose for Beauty, will in a little Time find the same Reason for another Choice.
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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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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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