Mary Astell

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

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

“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.”

“We ought as much as we can to endeavour the Perfecting of our Beings, and that we be as happy as possibly we may.”

“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.'”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“The scum of the People are most Tyrannical when they get the Power, and treat their Betters with the greatest Insolence.”

“'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.”

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

“God is His own Design and End, and that there is no other Worthy of Him.”

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

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

“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.”

“It is not the Head but the Heart that is the Seat of Atheism.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”