Quotes from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Aprendí que las virtudes más apreciadas por mis semejantes eran el rancio abolengo acompañado de riquezas. El hombre que poseía sólo una de estas cualidades podía ser respetado; pero si carecía de ambas se le consideraba, salvo raras excepciones, como a un vagabundo, un esclavo destinado a malgastar sus fuerzas en provecho de los pocos elegidos.

Sometimes, on the very brink of certainty, I failed; yet still I clung to the hope which the next day or the next hour might realise.

They call this retribution. Hateful name! When that word is pronounced, I know greater and more horrid punishments are going to be inflicted than the gloomiest tyrant has ever invented to satiate his utmost revenge.

Mis maldades son hijas de una soledad forzada que aborrezco, y mis virtudes florecerán necesariamente cuando reciba la comprensión de un igual.

Our lives will not be happy, but they will be harmless, and free from the misery I now feel. Oh! my creator, make me happy; let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit!

shall quit your vessel on the ice-raft which brought me hither, and shall seek the most northern extremity of the globe; I shall collect my funeral pile, and consume to ashes this miserable frame, that its remains may afford no light to any curious and unhallowed wretch, who would create such another as I have been. I shall die.

Al final llega el día en el que el dolor es más bien una complacencia que una necesidad, y la sonrisa que juega en los labios, aunque parezca un maldito sacrilegio, ya no se oculta.

But soon," he cried, with sad and solemn enthusiasm, "I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall

Like Adam, I was created apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but his state was far different from mine in every other respect.

Nunca me presenté a mí misma como la heroína de mis relatos. La vida me parecía un asunto demasiado vulgar en lo que a mí se refería.

Para mí el mundo era un secreto que anhelaba descubrir, para ella era un vacío que se afanaba por poblar con imaginaciones personales.

They are kind—they are the most excellent creatures in the world; but, unfortunately, they are prejudiced against me. I have good dispositions; my life has been hitherto harmless and in some degree beneficial; but a fatal prejudice clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they behold only a detestable monster.

sickened as I read. 'Hateful day when I received life!' I exclaimed in agony. 'Cursed 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 from its very resemblance. Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and detested.' "These

persuaded myself that when they should become acquainted with my admiration of their virtues, they would compassionate me, and overlook my personal deformity. Could they turn from their door one, however monstrous, who solicited their compassion and friendship?

A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind, and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquillity.

There is love in me the likes of which you've never seen. There is rage in me the likes of which should never escape.

Qué peligrosa es la adquisición de conocimiento y cuán más feliz es el hombre que cree que su pueblo es el mundo, que el que aspira a ser más grandioso de lo que le permite su naturaleza

I could not sustain the horror of my situation, and when I perceived that the popular voice and the countenances of the judges had already condemned my unhappy victim, I rushed out of the court in agony. The tortures of the accused did not equal mine; she was sustained by innocence, but the fangs of remorse tore my bosom and would not forgo their hold.

Alas! Life is obstinate and clings closest where it is most hated.

Increase of knowledge only discovered to me more clearly what a wretched outcast I was. I cherished hope, it is true; but it vanished, when I beheld my person reflected in water, or my shadow in the moon-shine

no Eve soothed my sorrows, or shared my thoughts; I was alone. I remembered Adam's supplication to his Creator;13 but where was mine? he had abandoned me, and, in the bitterness of my heart, I cursed him.

more I saw of them, the greater became my desire to claim their protection and kindness; my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures;

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.

The poor victim, who on the morrow was to pass the awful boundary between life and death, felt not, as I did, such deep and bitter agony. I gnashed my teeth and ground them together, uttering a groan that came from my inmost soul.