Mary Astell Quotes

46 Sourced Quotes

If a Woman can neither Love nor Honour, she does ill in promising to Obey.

Mary Astell
If marriage be such a blessed state, how comes it, may you say, that there are so few happy marriages? Now in answer to this, it is not to be wondered that so few succeed; we should rather be surprised to find so many do, considering how imprudently men engage, the motives they act by, and the very strange conduct they observe throughout.

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

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

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

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
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
'Tis less to be wondered at that women marry off in haste, for if they took time to consider and reflect upon it, they seldom would.

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
Happy am I who out of danger sit,
Can see and pity them who wade thro it;
Need take no thought my treasure to dispose,
What I ne'er had I cannot fear to lose.

Mary Astell
Their sophistry I can control
Who falsely say that women have no soul.

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
If Absolute Sovereignty be not necessary in a State, how comes it to be so in a family?

Mary Astell