Quotes by Mary Astell

“If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?”

“But, alas! what poor Woman is ever taught that she should have a higher Design than to get her a Husband?”

“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.”

“Truth is strong, and sometime or other will prevail.”

“God is His own Design and End, and that there is no other Worthy of Him.”

“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...”

“Ignorance and a narrow education lay the foundation of vice, and imitation and custom rear it up.”

“The numberless treatises of antiquities, philosophy, mathematics, natural and other history ... written originally in, or translated to our tongue are sufficient to lead us a great way into any sci...”

“Again, if Absolute Sovereignty be not necessary in a State, how comes it to be so in a family? Or if in a Family why not in a State; since no Reason can Be alle'd for the one that will not hold mor...”

“An ill husband may deprive a wife of the comfort and quiet of her life, give occasion of exercising her virtue, try her patience and fortitude to the utmost, which is all he can do; it is herself o...”

“Is it the being tied to One that offends us? Why this ought rather to recommend it to us, and would really do so, were we guided by reason, and not by humor and brutish passion. He who does not mak...”

“If all Men are born free, how is it that all Women are born slaves? as they must be if the being subjected to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, arbitrary Will of Men be the perfect Condition of S...”

“Thus, whether it be wit or beauty that a man’s in love with, there are no great hopes of a lasting happiness; beauty, with all the helps of arts, is of no long date; the more it is , the sooner it ...”

“She must be a fool with a witness, who can believe a man, proud and vain as he is, will lay his boasted authority, the dignity and prerogative of his sex, on moment at her feet, but in prospect of ...”

“The better our lot is in this world, and the more we have of it, the greater is our leisure to prepare for the next; we have the more opportunity to exercise that God-like quality, to taste that di...”

“Some Reflections upon Marriage, Preface (1706), Appendix (post 1706)”

“To withdraw our selves as much as may be from Corporeal things, that pure Reason may be heard the better; to make that use of our Senses for which they are design’d and fitted, the preservation of ...”