If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves? – Mary Astell
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
How can a Man respect his Wife when he has a contemptible Opinion of her and her Sex? – 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
Our only hope for the redemption of woman from the thralldom of dress lies in the belief that her hitherto limited sphere of activities has been so insufficient for her intellectual occupations that she has been forced to expend her thoughts in decorating her person, instead of enlarging her mind. – Mercy B. Jackson