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Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley QUOTES

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley QUOTES

1 " Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

2 " No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

3 " There was a considerable difference between the ages of my parents, but this circumstance seemed to unite them only closer in bonds of devoted affection. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

4 " Seek happiness in tranquility and avoid ambition even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

5 " One as deformed and horrible as myself, could not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects... with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being... "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

6 " It is thus that man, with fervent imagination, can endue the rough stone with loveliness, forge the mis-shapen metal into a likeness of all that wins our hearts by exceeding beauty, and breathe into a dissonant trump soul-melting harmonies. The mind of man—that mystery, which may lend arms against itself, teaching vain lessons of material philosophy, but which, in the very act, shows its power to play with all created things, adding the sweetness of its own essence to the sweetest, taking its ugliness from the deformed. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck: A Romance

7 " Youth, elastic and bright, disdains to be compelled. When conquered, from its very chains it forges implements for freedom; it alights from one baffled flight, only again to soar on untired wing towards some other aim. Previous defeat is made the bridge to pass the tide to another shore; and, if that break down, its fragments become stepping stones. It will feed upon despair, and call it a medicine which is to renovate its dying hopes. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck: A Romance

8 " I need not describe the feelings of those whose dearest ties are rent by that most irreparable evil, the void that presents itself to the soul, and the despair that is exhibited on the countenance. It is so long before the mind can persuade itself that she whom we saw every day and whose very existence appeared a part of our own can have departed forever—that the brightness of a beloved eye can have been extinguished and the sound of a voice so familiar and dear to the ear can be hushed, never more to be heard. These are the reflections of the first days; but when the lapse of time proves the reality of the evil, then the actual bitterness of grief commences. Yet from whom has not that rude hand rent away some dear connection? And why should I describe a sorrow which all have felt, and must feel? The time at length arrives when grief is rather an indulgence than a necessity; and the smile that plays upon the lips, although it may be deemed a sacrilege, is not banished. My mother was dead, but we had still duties which we ought to perform; we must continue our course with the rest and learn to think ourselves fortunate whilst one remains whom the spoiler has not seized. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

9 " Why did I not die? More miserable than man ever was before, why did I not sink into forgetfulness and rest? Death snatches away many blooming children, the only hopes of their doting parents: how many brides and youthful lovers have been one day in the bloom of health and hope, and the next a prey for worms and the decay of the tomb! Of what materials was I made, that I could thus resist so many shocks, which, like the turning of the wheel, continually renewed the torture?
But I was doomed to live; "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

10 " Heavy misfortunes have befallen us, but let us only cling closer to what remains, and transfer our love for those whom we have lost to those who yet live. Our circle will be small, but bound close by the ties of affection and mutual misfortune. And when time shall have softened your despair, new and dear objects of care will be born to replace those of whom we have been so cruelly deprived. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

11 " I do not ever remember to have trembled at a tale of superstition or to have feared the apparition of a spirit. Darkness had no effect upon my fancy, and a churchyard was to me merely the receptacle of bodies deprived of life, which, from being the seat of beauty and strength, had become food for the worm. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

12 " Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

13 " Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind when it has once seized on it like a lichen on the rock. I wished sometimes to shake off all thought and feeling, but I learned that there was but one means to overcome the sensation of pain, and that was death -- a state which I feared yet did not understand. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

14 " nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

15 " My education was neglected, yet I was passionately fond of reading. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

16 " A mind of moderate capacity which closely pursues one study must infallibly arrive at great proficiency in that study. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

17 " The labours of men of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

18 " In other studies you go as far as other have gone before you, and there is nothing more to know; but in a scientific pursuit there is continual food for discovery and wonder. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

19 " If your wish is to become really a man of science and not merely a petty experimentalist, I should advise you to apply to every branch of natural philosophy, including mathematics. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

20 " I felt convinced that however it might have been in former times, in the present stage of the world, no man's faculties could be developed, no man's moral principle be enlarged and liberal, without an extensive acquaintance with books. "

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , The Last Man