Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelleywas an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth30 August 1797
cannot firm hearts ice men shall steady stuff
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.
attention example human justly knowledge men-and-women obedience obtain outward protection softness taught women
Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man.
english-author men power wish
I do not wish them to have power over men, but over themselves.
cannot change endure heart love misery torture vice violence
My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine.
fix mind point purpose soul steady
Nothing contributes so much to tranquilizing the mind as a steady purpose -- a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.
eye fix mind point purpose soul steady
Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye
art ignorant pride thou thy
Man, I cried, "how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!
armies army-and-navy consist contain influence men resolute robust seldom standing strong vigorous
Standing armies can never consist of resolute robust men; they may be well-disciplined machines, but they will seldom contain men under the influence of strong passions, or with very vigorous faculties.
appearance bright elevated enchanting future gilded hope past present rays spirits
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.
call exercise farce result virtues virtuous whose
It is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of it's own reason.
anxious blank dull felt greatest invention misery
I thought and pondered - vainly. I felt that blank incapability of invention which is the greatest misery of authorship, when dull Nothing replies to our anxious invocations.
alloy apply destroy human pleasures possibly simple study taste tendency
If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is not befitting the human mind.
agreeable dreams english-author
My dreams were at once more fantastic and agreeable than my writings.
agony allowed extract feelings food incident misery occurred rage
The agony of my feelings allowed me no respite; no incident occurred from which my rage and misery could not extract its food . . .