But, alas! what poor Woman is ever taught that she should have a higher Design than to get her a Husband?
Interpretation
This quote criticizes societal expectations placed on women, suggesting they are taught to prioritize marriage above personal ambitions.
Mary Astell highlights the limitations imposed on women by societal norms, indicating that from a young age, they are conditioned to believe their primary goal in life is to marry. This statement challenges the notion that women should aspire only to find a husband, advocating for a broader understanding of women's roles and potential beyond traditional expectations.
In practice
In a speech advocating for women's rights, this quote could be used to emphasize the need for broader aspirations among women.
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.
How can a Man respect his Wife when he has a contemptible Opinion of her and her Sex?
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.
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.
So long as large sums of money are involved - and they are bound to be if drugs are illegal - it is literally impossible to stop the traffic, or even to make a serious reduction in its scope.
Human rights, of course, must include the right to religious freedom, understood as the expression of a dimension that is at once individual and communitarian - a vision that brings out the unity of the person while clearly distinguishing between the dimension of the citizen and that of the believer.
What makes revolutionary thought unique is its clarity and dignity, and its clear grasp of freedom and justice: simple, clear words that are understood without the need for any help from elite writers or thinkers.
In the glad old days, before the rise of modern morbidities...it used to be thought a disadvantage to be misunderstood.
After the leaves have fallen, we return To a plain sense of things. It is as if We had come to an end of the imagination, Inanimate in an inert savoir.
What use is it to us to hear it said of a man that he has thrown off the yoke that he does not believe there is a God to watch over his actions, that he reckons himself the sole master of his behavior, and that he does not intend to give an account of it to anyone but himself?
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