Quotes from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Me declaro en contra de todo poder cimentado en prejuicios aunque sean antiguos.

This passion is detrimental to me; for you do not reflect that you are the cause of its excess.

é una richiesta seria e precisa che ti chiedo di adempiere: non dobbiamo più stare lontani! Mi rende infelice: mi ritiro nella mia camera e non c'è il mio dolce amore, ceno e Shelley non è da nessuna parte, anche se ho tonnellate di dettagli da raccontare... Per farla breve, o torni o vengo io. (I miei sogni mi appartengono: Lettere della donna che reinventò la paura)

I know that while you are pleased with yourself you will think of us with affection, and we shall hear regularly from you. You must pardon me if I regard any interruption in your correspondence as a proof that your other duties are equally neglected.

You, my creator, abhor me; what hope can I gather from your fellow-creatures, who owe me nothing?

As yet I looked upon crime as a distant evil; benevolence and generosity were ever present before me, inciting within me a desire to become an actor in the busy scene where so many admirable qualities were called forth and displayed.

I wandered for ever about these lovely solitudes, gathering flower after flower . . . singing as I might the wild melodies of the country, or occupied by pleasant day dreams.

Happy, happy earth! Fit habitation for gods, which, so short a time before, was bleak, damp, and unwholesome. My spirits were elevated by the enchanting appearance of nature. The past quil and the future gilded by bright rays of hope and anticipations of you.

These were wild and miserable thoughts; but I cannot describe to you how the eternal twinkling of the stars weighed upon me, and how I listened to every blast of wind, as if it were a dull ugly siroc on its way to consume me.

I still insist that not only the virtue but the knowledge of the two sexes should be the same in nature, if not in degree, and that women, considered not only as moral but rational creatures, ought to endeavour to acquire human virtues (or perfections) by the same means as men, instead of being educated like a fanciful kind of half being [...].

Nothing is more painful to the human mind than after the feelings have been worked up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of inaction and certainty which follows and deprives the soul both of hope and fear.

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

My warm affections finding no return... were forced to run waste on inanimate objects.

I was a solitary being, and from my infant years, ever since my dear nurse left me, I had been a dreamer.

And so here I am ! I continue to exist—to see one day succeed the other ; to dread night, but more to dread morning, and hail another cheerless day.

I considered the being whom I had cast among mankind and endowed with the will and power to effect purposes of horror, such as the deed which he had now done, nearly in the light of my own vampire, my own spirit let loose from the grave and forced to destroy all that was dear to me.

There is no feeling more awful than that which invades a weak heart bent upon its ungovernable impulses in contradiction to the dictates of conscience.

Dla umysÅ'u ludzkiego nie ma nic bardziej bolesnego jak ten stan gÅ'uchego zastoju i bezsilnej pewnoÅ›ci, który nastÄ™puje po krytycznym momencie napiÄ™cia uczu? spowodowanego przez szereg szybko po sobie nastÄ™pujÄ…cych wypadków i który odbiera duszy zarówno nadziejÄ™ jak i obawÄ™.

To examine the cause of life, we must first have recourse to death.

Nothing is more painful to the human mind than, after feelings have been worked up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of inaction and certainty which follows and deprives the soul of both hope and fear

It seemed to me as if nothing would or could ever be known. All that had so long engaged my attention suddenly grew despicable.

Sometimes I wished to express my sensations in my own mode, but the uncouth and inarticulate sounds which broke from me frightened me into silence again.

I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me?

Man," I cried, "how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom! Cease; you know not what it is you say.