But, alas! what poor Woman is ever taught that she should have a higher Design than to get her a Husband?
Mary AstellRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Mary Astell challenges the idea that women are incapable of prudence, asserting their capability and intelligence.
In this quote, Mary Astell confronts the societal belief that women lack the ability to act wisely or behave prudently. She suggests that such notions are based not only on wit or malice but are unfounded prejudices against women, advocating for their recognition as rational and capable individuals. By opposing this stereotype, Astell asserts a case for women's intelligence and autonomy.
Themes
WomenPrudenceWisdomGenderEquality
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about gender equality, one might quote Mary Astell to emphasize women's capability.
More from Mary Astell
All quotes →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 AstellRead
How can a Man respect his Wife when he has a contemptible Opinion of her and her Sex?
Mary AstellRead
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.
Mary AstellRead
Similar quotes
I am a member of a fragile species, still new to the earth, the youngest creatures of any scale, here only a few moments as evolutionary time is measured, a juvenile species, a child of a species. We are only tentatively set in place, error prone, at risk of fumbling, in real danger at the moment of leaving behind only a thin layer of of our fossils, radioactive at that.
Lewis ThomasRead
Judicial execution can never cancel or remove the atrocity it seeks to punish; it can only add a second atrocity to the original one ... So long as one sees killing as wrong there is no need to waste time with the deterrent argument, since it would be nonsense to try to prevent a theoretical evil in the future by perpetrating an actual one in the present.
Auberon WaughRead
I was taught that the human brain was the crowning glory of evolution so far, but I think it's a very poor scheme for survival.
Kurt VonnegutRead
Naturally, since [the Sumerians] didn't know what caused the flood anymore than we do, they blamed the gods. (That's the advantage of religion. You're never short an explanation for anything.)
Isaac AsimovRead
A nation can survive its fools, even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within....for the traitor appears not to be a traitor...he rots the soul of a nation...he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
The last official act of any government is to loot the treasury.
George WashingtonRead