Mary Astell Quotes

If all men are born free, why is it that all women are born slaves?

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.

Truth is strong, and sometime or other will prevail.

We must Think what we Say, and Mean what we Profess.

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.

The Span of Life is too short to be trifled away in unconcerning and unprofitable Matters.

Women are from their very infancy debarred those Advantages with the want of which they are afterwards reproached.

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

A woman indeed can't properly be said to choose, all that is allowed her, is to refuse or accept what is offered.

Your glass will not do you half so much service as a serious reflection on your own minds.

Women are not so well united as to form an Insurrection. They are for the most part wise enough to love their Chains, and to discern how becomingly they fit.

How can a Man respect his Wife when he has a contemptible Opinion of her and her Sex?

We all agree that its fit to be as Happy as we can, and we need no Instructor to teach us this Knowledge, 'tis born with us, and is inseparable from our Being, but we very much need to be Inform'd what is the true Way to Happiness.

For certainly there cannot be a higher pleasure than to think that we love and are beloved by the most amiable and best Being.

Fetters of gold are still fetters, and the softest lining can never make them so easy as liberty.

If absolute sovereignty be not necessary in a State, how comes it to be so in a family?

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?

That Man indeed can never be good at heart, who is full of himself and his own Endowments.

To plead for the Oppress'd and to defend the Weak seem'd to me a generous undertaking; for tho' it may be secure, 'tis not always Honourable to run over to the strongest party.

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.

Women need not take up with mean things, since (if they are not wanting to themselves) they are capable of the best.

Although it has been said by men of more wit than wisdom, and perhaps more malice than either, that women are naturally incapable of acting prudently, or that they are necessarily determined to folly, I must by no means grant it.

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.

A husband is indeed thought by both sexes so very valuable, that scarce a man who can keep himself clean and make a bow, but thinks he is good enough to pretend to any woman.

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