Mary Astell
Mary Astell
Mary Astellwas an English feminist writer and rhetorician. Her advocacy of equal educational opportunities for women has earned her the title "the first English feminist."...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth12 November 1666
mind delight body
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.
marriage husband should-have
But, alas! what poor Woman is ever taught that she should have a higher Design than to get her a Husband?
garden world fine
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.
sex husband men
A husband is indeed thought by both sexes so very valuable, that scarce a man who can keep himself clean and make a bow, but thinks he is good enough to pretend to any woman ...
slavery sacred cases
Why is Slavery so much condemn'd and strove against in one Case, and so highly applauded and held so necessary and so sacred in another?
tyrants coward tyranny
none can be Tyrants but Cowards.
people scum insolence
The scum of the People are most Tyrannical when they get the Power, and treat their Betters with the greatest Insolence.
father eye son
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.
sex men wife
How can a Man respect his Wife when he has a contemptible Opinion of her and her Sex?
sex acknowledge
He who will be just, must be forc'd to acknowledge, that neither Sex are always in the right.
self soul affection
The Soul debases her self, when she sets her affections on any thing but her creator.
way needs fit
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.
choices littles reason
. . . he who only or chiefly chose for Beauty, will in a little Time find the same Reason for another Choice.
few good lasting preferable preferred public
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.