Mary Astell Quotes
Mary Astell was an English philosopher and one of the first advocates in English of the equal education of women. In A Serious Proposal to the Ladies she argued for the founding of an academic community in which women might cultivate rational and religious life apart from the demands of marriage and society. The quotes below are attributed to Mary Astell, organized by topic.
Browse Mary Astell by topic
Mary Astell on Freedom
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“If all Men are born free, how is it that all Women are born slaves?”
Reflection upon Marriage (1700), as quoted in Astell: Political Writings , p. 18, by Mary Astell, Editor Patricia Springborg. Editorial Cambridge University Press, 1996. ISBN 0521428459 . -
“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 Slavery?”
Reflection upon Marriage (1700), as quoted in Astell: Political Writings , p. 18, by Mary Astell, Editor Patricia Springborg. Editorial Cambridge University Press, 1996. ISBN 0521428459 .
Mary Astell on God
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Attributed to Mary Astell:
“True Religion is true Reason.”
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“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 divine pleasure, doing good to the bodies and souls of those beneath us.”
Wikiquote
Mary Astell on Happiness
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Attributed to Mary Astell:
“Nothing is, in truth, a Pleasure to us, but what is rationally so.”
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“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 make friendship the chief inducement of his choice, and prefer it before any other consideration does not deserve a good wife, and therefore should not complain if he goes without one... The Christian institution of marriage provides the best that may be for domestic quiet and content, and for the education of children.”
As quoted in Women's Political & Social Thought: An Anthology , p. 112. Editors Hilda L. Smith, Berenice A. Carroll. Editorial Indiana University Press, 2000. ISBN 0253337585 . -
“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 decays; and he, who only or chiefly chose for beauty, will in a little time find the same reason for another choice.”
Reflection upon Marriage , as quoted in Astell: Political Writings , p. 42.
Mary Astell on Knowledge
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“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 science our curiosity shall prompt us to. The greatest difficulty we struggled with, was the want of a good art of reasoning, which we had not, that I know of, till that defect was supplied by Locke, whose Essay on Human Understanding makes large amends for the want of all others in that kind.”
An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex. P. 54 -
“An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex. P. 54”
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 science our curiosity shall prompt us to. The greatest difficulty we struggled with, was the want of a good art of reasoning, which we had not, that I know of, till that defect was supplied by Locke, whose
Mary Astell on Life
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“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 only that can accomplish her ruin.”
As quoted in The Whole duty of a woman: female writers in seventeenth century England , p. 157, by Angeline Goreau. Editorial Dial Press, 1985. ISBN 0385278780 .
Mary Astell on Love
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Attributed to Mary Astell:
“How can a Man respect his Wife when he has a Contemptible Opinion of her and her Sex?”
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Attributed to Mary Astell:
“She who has nothing to give but herself, makes a notable present.”
Mary Astell on Mind
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“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 make friendship the chief inducement of his choice, and prefer it before any other consideration does not deserve a good wife, and therefore should not complain if he goes without one... The Christian insti”
As quoted in Women's Political & Social Thought: An Anthology , p. 112. Editors Hilda L. Smith, Berenice A. Carroll. Editorial Indiana University Press, 2000. ISBN 0253337585 . -
“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 more strongly for the other?”
As quoted in Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith , p. 203, by William Kolbrener. Editor Michal Michelson. Editorial Routledge, 2016. ISBN 1317100093 .
Mary Astell on Politics
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“If absolute Sovereignty be not necessary in a State, how comes it to be so in a Family?”
As quoted in Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith , p. 203, by William Kolbrener. Editor Michal Michelson. Editorial Routledge, 2016. ISBN 1317100093 .
Mary Astell on Truth
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“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 the Body, but not to depend on their Testimony in our Enquiries after Truth.”
A serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the advancement of their True and Greatest Interest (In Two Parts) (1697)