Ignorance and a narrow education lay the foundation of vice, and imitation and custom rear it up. – Mary Astell
We ought as much as we can to endeavour the Perfecting of our Beings, and that we be as happy as possibly we may. – Mary Astell
Upon the principles of reason, the good of many is preferable to the good of a few or of one; a lasting good is to be preferred before a temporary, the public before the private. – 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
The scum of the People are most Tyrannical when they get the Power, and treat their Betters with the greatest Insolence. – 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
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
‘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. – Mary Astell
Your glass will not do you half so much service as a serious reflection on your own minds. – 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
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
But, alas! what poor Woman is ever taught that she should have a higher Design than to get her a Husband? – Mary Astell
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. – 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
The Span of Life is too short to be trifled away in unconcerning and unprofitable Matters. – Mary Astell
The Relation we bear to the Wisdom of the Father, the Son of His Love, gives us indeed a dignity which otherwise we have no pretence to. It makes us something, something considerable even in God’s Eyes. – 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
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. – 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
Every Body has so good an Opinion of their own Understanding as to think their own way the best. – Mary Astell
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. – Mary Astell
He who will be just, must be forc’d to acknowledge, that neither Sex are always in the right. – Mary Astell
