Mary Shelley Quotes
Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.
Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose.
Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.
The beginning is always today.
It is by no means improbable that some future generation will see the works I have done and wonder what great events led to their production.
My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed – my dearest pleasure when free.
The world to me was a secret, which I desired to discover; to her it was a vacancy, which she sought to people with imaginations of her own.
Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.
No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.
I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.
Learn from me, if not by my precepts, then by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge.
Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.
The companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain.
A mind of moderate capacity which closely pursues one study must infallibly arrive at great proficiency in that study.
I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine, and rage the likes of which you would not believe.
My life might have been passed in ease and luxury; but I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path.
Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.
I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe.
Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind when it has once seized on it like a lichen on the rock.
I busied myself to think of a story – a story to rival those which had excited us to this task. One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror.
The human frame could no longer support the agonies that I endured, and I was carried out of the room in strong convulsions.
My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed – my dearest pleasure when free.
It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.
I believe in kindness. Also in mischief.
How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that clinging love we have of life even in the excess of misery!
We are fashioned creatures, but half made up.
Unhappy man! Do you share my maddening miseries?
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.
The cup of life was poisoned forever; and although the sun shone upon me, as upon the happy and gay of heart, I saw around me nothing but a dense and frightful darkness, penetrated by no light but the glimmer of two eyes that glared upon me.
With how many things are we on the brink of becoming acquainted, if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our inquiries.
One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought.
I do not ever remember to have trembled at a tale of superstition or to have feared the apparition of a spirit. Darkness had no effect upon my fancy, and a churchyard was to me merely the receptacle of bodies deprived of life, which, from being the seat of beauty and strength, had become food for the worm.
Whence, I often asked myself, did the principle of life proceed?
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 tranquility.
I perceived that the words they spoke sometimes produced pleasure or pain, smiles or sadness, in the minds and countenances of the hearers.
The world was to me a secret, which I desired to discover; to her it was a vacancy, which she sought to people with imaginations of her own.
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 tranquility.
The very winds whispered in soothing accents, and maternal nature bade me weep no more.
I can hardly describe to you the effect of these books. They produced in me an infinity of new images and feelings, that sometimes raised me to ecstasy but more frequently plunged me into the deepest melancholy.
And what, Margaret, will be the state of your mind? You will not hear of my destruction, and you will anxiously await my return.
The world to me was a secret, which I desired to discover; to her it was a vacancy, which she sought to people with dreams of her own.
It is a strange science – to dive into the recesses of the human heart.
Learn from me, if not by my precepts, then by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge.
My spirits were elevated by the enchanting appearance of nature.
Believe me, Frankenstein: I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone?
I looked upon the sea; it was to be my grave.
The companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain.
Soon I shall be as it is with angels.
Melancholy! How beautiful is its name! It is a law of nature that I love.
The contemplation of these sublime subjects drove me from my cottage, and I resolved to seek a more secluded asylum.