Quotes from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

He can no longer be a fit subject for pity; the survivors are the greatest sufferers, and for them time is the only consolation.

The agonies of remorse poison the luxury there is otherwise sometimes found in indulging the excess of grief.

Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance. Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him, but I am solitary and abhorred.

Monsters, says Mary, are of our own making.

should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No: 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. "The sun rose; I heard the voices of men, and knew that it was impossible to return to my retreat during that day.

But I did not believe my errors to be irretrievable; and, after much consideration, I resolved to return to the cottage, seek the old man, and by my representations win him to my party.

I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me; whose eyes would reply to mine. You may deem me romantic, my dear sister, but I bitterly feel the want of a friend.

For a moment my soul was elevated from its debasing and miserable fears to contemplate the divine ideas of liberty and self sacrifice of which these sights were the monuments and the remembrancers. For an instant I dared to shake off my chains and look around me with a free and lofty spirit

I postponed this attempt for some months longer; for the importance attached to its success inspired me with a dread lest I shall fail.

You are in the wrong," replied the fiend; "and, instead of threatening, I am content to reason with you.

a thousand conflicting emotions rendered her mute as she bade me a tearful, silent farewell.

the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.

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

the past was blotted from my memory, the present was tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope, and anticipations of joy.

But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil.

I am sorry that I am alive to feel this misery and horror.

I am full of fears; for if I fail there, I am an outcast in the world for ever.

His power and threats were not omitted in my calculations:

Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away;

I greatly need a friend who would have sense enough not to despise me as romantic, and affection enough for me to endeavour to regulate my mind.

My affection for my guest increases every day. He excites at once my admiration and pity to an astonishing degree. How can I see so noble a creature destroyed by misery without feeling the most poignant grief? He is so gentle, yet so wise; his mind is so cultivated; when he speaks, although his words are culled with the choicest art, yet they flow with rapidity and unparalleled eloquence.

Vos, mi creador, me odiáis. ¿Qué puedo esperar de aquellos que no me deben nada?

Believe me, if you beheld on lips with grief one smile of joy and gratitude, and knew that you were parent of that smile and that without you it had never been, you would feel so pure and warm a happiness that you'd wish to live forever again and again to enjoy the same pleasure.

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