Mary Shelley Quotes

"My dreams were at once more fantastic and agreeable than my writings."

"My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed - my dearest pleasure when free."

"Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man."

"I shall live to improve myself, to take care of my child and to render myself worthy to join him. Soon my weary pilgrimage will begin."

"The very winds whispered in soothing accents, and maternal Nature bade me weep no more."

"Be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not."

"Nothing contributes so much to tranquilizing the mind as a steady purpose -- a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye."

"Standing armies can never consist of resolute robust men; they may be well-disciplined machines, but they will seldom contain men under the influence of strong passions, or with very vigorous faculties."

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

"The same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain would have rendered him useful in society, had that society been well organized."

"I do not wish them to have power over men, but over themselves."

"The scene of my existence is closed & though there be no pleasure in retracing the scenes that have preceded the event which has crushed my hopes yet there seems to be a necessity in doing so, and I obey the impulse that urges me."

"If the abstract rights of man will bear discussion and explanation, those of women, by a parity of reasoning, will not shrink from the same test: though a different opinion prevails in this country."

"It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world."

"Life is obstinate and clings closest where it is most hated."

"A slavish bondage to parents cramps every faculty of the mind."

"But I am a blasted tree; the bolt has entered my soul; and I felt then that I should survive to exhibit what I shall soon cease to be--a miserable spectacle of wrecked humanity, pitiable to others and intolerable to myself."

"It is hardly surprising that women concentrate on the way they look instead of what was in their minds since not much has been put in their minds to begin with"

"The agony of my feelings allowed me no respite; no incident occurred from which my rage and misery could not extract its food . . ."

"Teach him to think for himself? Oh, my God, teach him rather to think like other people!"