Mary Astell Quotes and Sayings - Page 2
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“Fetters of gold are still fetters, and the softest lining can never make them so easy as liberty.”
-- Mary Astell -
“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 -
“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.”
-- Mary Astell -
“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 -
“That which has not a real excellency and value in it self, entertains no longer than the giddy Humour which recommended it to us holds.”
-- Mary Astell -
“Ignorance and a narrow education lay the foundation of vice, and imitation and custom rear it up.”
-- Mary Astell -
“None of God's Creatures absolutely consider'd are in their own Nature Contemptible; the meanest Fly, the poorest Insect has its Use and Vertue.”
-- Mary Astell -
“It is not the Head but the Heart that is the Seat of Atheism.”
-- Mary Astell -
“The Span of Life is too short to be trifled away in unconcerning and unprofitable Matters.”
-- Mary Astell -
“If all men are born free, why is it that all women are born slaves?”
-- Mary Astell -
“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 -
“But, alas! what poor Woman is ever taught that she should have a higher Design than to get her a Husband?”
-- Mary Astell -
“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 -
“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.”
-- Mary Astell -
“Unhappy is that Grandeur which makes us too great to be good; and that Wit which sets us at a distance from true Wisdom.”
-- Mary Astell -
“Women are from their very infancy debarred those Advantages with the want of which they are afterwards reproached.”
-- Mary Astell -
“That Man indeed can never be good at heart, who is full of himself and his own Endowments.”
-- Mary Astell -
“None of us whether Men or Women but have so good an Opinion of our own Conduct as to believe we are fit, if not to direct others, at least to govern our selves.”
-- Mary Astell -
“Marry for Love, an Heroick Action, which makes a mighty noise in the World, partly because of its rarity, and partly in regard of its extravagancy.”
-- Mary Astell -
“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.”
-- Mary Astell -
“If none were to Marry, but Men of strict Vertue and Honour, I doubt the World would be but thinly peopled.”
-- Mary Astell -
“If a Woman can neither Love nor Honour, she does ill in promising to Obey.”
-- Mary Astell -
“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
