Mary Shelley Quotes

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

"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."

"At boarding schools the relaxation of the junior boys is mischief, and of the seniors vice"

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

"Children, I grant, should be innocent; but when the epithet is applied to men, or women, it is but a civil term for weakness."

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

"We are tomorrow's past."

"I am very averse to bringing myself forward in print, but as my account will only appear as an appendage to a former production, and as it will be confined to such topics as have connection with my authorship alone, I can hardly accuse myself of a personal intrusion."

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

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

"Elegance is inferior to virtue."

"It is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of it's own reason"

"My spirits were elevated by the enchanting appearance of nature; the past was blotted from my memory, the present was tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope and anticipations of joy."

"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"

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

"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."

"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."

"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."