Quotes by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

“No, no, I will not live among the wild scenes of nature, the enemy of all that lives. I will seek the townsRome, the capital of the world, the crown of man's achievements. Among its storied streets...”

“The weather was cheerful, the breath of spring animating. She watched the swelling of the budsthe peeping heads of the crocusesthe opening of the anemones and wild wind-flowers, and at last, the sw...”

“When tenderness softened her heart, and the sublime feeling of universal love penetrated her, she found no voice that replied so well to hers as the gentle singing of the pines under the air of noo...”

“Volume II: Chapter V What are we, the inhabitants of this globe, least among the many that people infinite space? Our minds embrace infinity; the visible mechanism of our being is subject to merest...”

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

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

“What is there so fearful as the expectation of evil tidings delayed? ... Misery is a more welcome visitant when she comes in her darkest guise and wraps us in perpetual black, for then the heart no...”

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

“So much does suffering blunt even the coarsest sensations of men”

“My courage and my resolution is firm; but my hopes fluctuate, and my spirits are often depressed.”

“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 sympath...”

“the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain.”

“It may...be judged indecent in me to come forward on this occasion; but when I see a fellow-creature about to perish through the cowardice of her pretended friends, I wish to be allowed to speak, t...”

“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 int...”

“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 to...”

“Suddenly high song awakens me, and I leave all this tedious routine far, far distant; I listen, till all the world is changed, and the beautiful earth becomes more beautiful.”

“I must love and be loved. I must feel that my dear and chosen friends are happier through me. When I have wandered out of myself in my endeavour to shed pleasure around, I must again return laden w...”

“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....”

“Surely once in a life God will grant the earnest entreaty of a loving heart.”

“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 m...”