Mary Wortley Montagu
Mary Wortley Montagu
Lady Mary Wortley Montaguwas an English aristocrat, letter writer and poet. Lady Mary is today chiefly remembered for her letters, particularly her letters from travels to the Ottoman Empire, as wife to the British ambassador to Turkey, which have been described by Billie Melman as "the very first example of a secular work by a woman about the Muslim Orient". Aside from her writing, Lady Mary is also known for introducing and advocating for smallpox inoculation to Britain after her...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth26 May 1689
Mary Wortley Montagu quotes about
My chief study all my life has been to lighten misfortunes and multiply pleasures, as far as human nature can.
It is 11 years since I have seen my figure in a glass [mirror]. The last reflection I saw there was so disagreeable I resolved to spare myself such mortification in the future.
It goes far towards reconciling me to being a woman, when I reflect that I am thus in no danger of ever marrying one.
to be reasonable one should never complain but when one hopes redress.
My health is so often impaired that I begin to be as weary of it as mending old lace; when it is patched in one place, it breaks out in another.
But the fruit that can fall without shaking Indeed is too mellow for me.
Nobody should trust their virtue with necessity, the force of which is never known till it is felt, and it is therefore one of the first duties to avoid the temptation of it.
'Tis a sort of duty to be rich, that it may be in one's power to do good, riches being another word for power.
Solitude begets whimsies.
Life is too short for a long story
It has all been most interesting.
The pretty fellows you speak of, I own entertain me sometimes, but is it impossible to be diverted with what one despises? I can laugh at a puppet show, at the same time I know there is nothing in it worth my attention or regard.
I have never, in all my various travels, seen but two sorts of people I mean men and women, who always have been, and ever will be, the same. The same vices and the same follies have been the fruit of all ages, though sometimes under different names.
A face is too slight a foundation for happiness.