Quotes from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

My proud step was no interpreter of my heart, for I deeply felt that, though surrounded by every luxury, I was a beggar.

It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another. Our lives will not be happy, but they will be harmless and free from the misery I now feel.

as with the mighty shock of an earthquake, it split, and cracked with a tremendous and overwhelming sound. The work was soon finished: in a few minutes a tumultuous sea rolled between me and my enemy, and I was left drifting on a scattered piece of ice, that

Mi sembrava un sogno, però chiaro e oppressivo come la realtà.

Come, Victor; not brooding thoughts of vengeance against the assassin, but with feelings of peace and gentleness, that will heal, instead of festering, the wounds of our minds. Enter the house of mourning, my friend, but with kindness and affection for those who love you, and not with hatred for your enemies. Alphonse Frankenstein

I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevates me to heaven; for nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose,—a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.

sister or a brother can never, unless indeed such symptoms have been shewn early, suspect the other of fraud or false dealing, when another friend, however strongly he may be attached, may, in spite of himself, be invaded with suspicion. But

It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in it highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.

must pursue and destroy the being to whom I gave existence; then my lot on earth will be fulfilled, and I may die.

I was like the Arabian who had been buried with the dead, and found a passage to life aided only by one glimmering, and seemingly ineffectual, light.

fills me with cheerful auguries. Even the sailors feel the power of his eloquence: when he speaks, they no longer despair; he rouses their energies, and, while they hear his voice, they believe these vast mountains of ice are molehills, which will vanish before the resolutions of man.

They desired, therefore, that I should engage with a solemn promise, that if the vessel should be freed, I would instantly direct my course southward.

Aunque tiene el alma destrozada, nadie aprecia más que él las bellezas de la naturaleza.

religion and wealth rather than the crime alleged against him had been the cause of his condemnation.

He may be innocent of the murder, but he has certainly a bad conscience.

would not lead them further north, if they strenuously desired the contrary; but that I hoped that, with reflection, their courage would return.

Un hombre como él tiene una doble existencia: puede sufrir todas las desgracias y caer abatido por todos los desengaños; sin embargo, cuando se encierre en sí mismo, será como un espíritu celestial, que tiene un halo en torno a sí, cuyo cerco no puede atravesar ni la angustia ni la locura.

God in pity made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid from its very resemblance.

Alas! why does man boast of sensibilities superior to those apparent in the brute; it only renders them more necessary beings. If out impulses were confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might nearly be free; but now we are moved by every wind that blows, and a chance word or scene that that word may convey to us.

from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and, more than all, against him who had formed me, and sent me forth to this insupportable misery.

I did not participate in these feelings; for to me the walls of a dungeon or a palace were alike hateful.

Oh, Frankenstein, be not equitable to every other, and trample upon me alone, to whom thy justice, or even thy clemency and affection, is most due. Remember that I am thy creature: I ought to be thy Adam,; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Every where I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.

Like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell.

A considerable period elapsed before I discovered one of the causes of the uneasiness of this amiable family: it was poverty, and they suffered that evil in a very distressing degree.