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.
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.
care child english-author improve join pilgrimage render shall soon weary worthy
I shall live to improve myself, to take care of my child and to render myself worthy to join him. Soon my weary pilgrimage will begin.
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.
begin hardly instead minds since surprising women
It is hardly surprising that women concentrate on the way they look instead of what is in their minds since not much has been put in their minds to begin with.
annoyed dearest dreams english-author refuge
My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed - my dearest pleasure when free.
appeared break dark death ideal life pour torrent
Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.
english-author nature soothing winds
The very winds whispered in soothing accents, and maternal Nature bade me weep no more.
affection bid death echo forth found grief hideous offspring true
And now, once again, I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper. I have an affection for it, for it was the offspring of happy days, when death and grief were but words, which found no true echo in my heart.
english-author life obstinate
Life is obstinate and clings closest where it is most hated.
consist humbly
Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.
bolt cease entered exhibit felt miserable others shall soon spectacle survive wrecked
But I am a blasted tree; the bolt has entered my soul; and I felt then that I should survive to exhibit what I shall soon cease to be - a miserable spectacle of wrecked humanity, pitiable to others and intolerable to myself.
fix mind point steady
Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.
describe haunted terrified terrify
What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.