8 Quotes & Sayings By Mary Astell

Mary Astell, a Quaker, is one of the most important women's rights writers of the 17th century. Her philosophical works, especially A Serious Proposal to the Ladies (1694), asserted that women should be educated to read and write, and that they had the same right to participate in political affairs as men. She was an antagonist of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes.

If all men are born free, how is it that...
1
If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves? Mary Astell
2
But, alas! what poor Woman is ever taught that she should have a higher Design than to get her a Husband? Mary Astell
3
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
4
Truth is strong, and sometime or other will prevail. Mary Astell
5
God is His own Design and End, and that there is no other Worthy of Him. Mary Astell
6
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
7
Ignorance and a narrow education lay the foundation of vice, and imitation and custom rear it up. Mary Astell