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 Informd what is the true Way to Happiness. – Mary Astell
If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves? – Mary Astell
Hitherto I have courted Truth with a kind of Romantick Passion, in spite of all Difficulties and Discouragements: for knowledge is thought so unnecessary an Accomplishment for a Woman, that few will give themselves the Trouble to assist us in the Attainment of it. – 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