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.
For 200 years, the West has been so dominant in the world that it's not really needed to understand other cultures, other civilizations. Because, at the end of the day, it could, if necessary by force, get its own way.
The weight of the old world is stifling, and trying to shovel its weight off your life is tiring just to think about. The constant shuttling of opinions is tiring, and the shuffling of papers across desks, the chopping of logic and the trimming of attitudes. There must, somewhere, be a simpler, more violent world.
Man walks the moon but his soul remains riveted to earth. Once upon a time it was the opposite.
For me Christ was not to be bought for thirty pieces of silver but with my heart's blood. We buy not cheap in this market.
Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity, and fashion will drive them to acquire any custom.
This survival of the fittest implies multiplication of the fittest.
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