100 Best Mary Shelley Quotes From The Author Of 'Frankenstein'
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Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English writer born in the year 1797.
Her most widely known work is the novel 'Frankenstein' or 'The Modern Prometheus'. The novel is still very relevant in popular culture and is regarded as one of the first sci-fi novels.
Mary first came up with the story for 'Frankenstein' in Geneva when she was trapped indoors because of heavy rainfall. We've collected the best quotes from the legendary author for you to enjoy. If you enjoy reading quotes from famous authors, check out our curated lists of Mary Wollstonecraft and Charlotte Brontë quotes.
Mary Shelley Famous Quotes
Here are some of the best quotes from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.
1. "The beginning is always today."
- Mary Shelley.
2. "What is there in our nature that is for ever urging us on towards pain and misery?"
- Mary Shelley.
3. "You are still, as you ever were, lovely, beautiful beyond expression."
- Mary Shelley.
4. "The very winds whispered in soothing accents, and maternal nature bade me weep no more."
- Mary Shelley.
5. "When we desire a thing earnestly, and it does arrive, that or we are changed, so that we slide from the summit of our wishes and find ourselves where we were."
- Mary Shelley.
6. "If pain can purify the heart, mine will be pure."
- Mary Shelley.
7. "We never do what we wish when we wish it."
- Mary Shelley.
8. "Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world."
- Mary Shelley.
9. "Oh! Stars and clouds and winds, ye are all about to mock me; if ye really pity me, crush sensation and memory."
- Mary Shelley.
10. "Evil thenceforth became my good."
- Mary Shelley.
11. "Seek happiness in tranquility and avoid ambition even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries."
- Mary Shelley.
12. "The labours of men of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind."
- Mary Shelley.
13. "The sun might shine, or the clouds might lour: but nothing could appear to me as it had done the day before."
- Mary Shelley.
14. "My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed, my dearest pleasure when free."
- Mary Shelley.
15. "Once I falsely hoped to meet the beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of unfolding."
- Mary Shelley.
16. "Learn from my miseries, and do not seek to increase your own."
- Mary Shelley.
17. "I think that I can maintain myself, and there is something inspiring in the idea."
- Mary Shelley.
18. "A nymph of the woods such as you were."
- Mary Shelley.
19. "Live, and be happy, and make others so."
- Mary Shelley.
20. "We have a power given us in any worst extremity, which props the else feeble mind of man, and enables us to endure the most savage tortures with a stillness of soul which in hours of happiness we could not have imagined."
- Mary Shelley
21. "I am not a person of opinions because I feel the counter arguments too strongly."
- Mary Shelley.
22. "The name of Italy has magic in its very syllables."
- Mary Shelley.
23. "Solitude was my only consolation- deep, dark, deathlike solitude."
- Mary Shelley.
24. "It was the part of a woman so to refine and educate her mind, as to be the cause of good alone to him whose fate depended on her smile."
- Mary Shelley.
25. "No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks."
- Mary Shelley.
26. "Look forward to future years, if not with eager anticipation, yet with a calm reliance upon the power of good, wholly remote from despair."
- Mary Shelley.
27. "Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose, a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye."
- Mary Shelley.
28. "The last man! Yes I may well describe that solitary being's feelings, feeling myself as the last relic of a beloved race, my companions extinct before me."
- Mary Shelley.
29. "It is a strange feeling for a girl when first she finds the power put into her hand of influencing the destiny of another to happiness or misery."
- Mary Shelley.
30. "Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos."
- Mary Shelley.
31. "Tranquility, allied to loneliness, possessed no charms."
- Mary Shelley.
32. "An air of fashion, which is but a badge of slavery ... proves that the soul has not a strong individual character."
- Mary Shelley.
33. "Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all affections, because it is founded on principle, and cemented by time."
- Mary Shelley.
34. "When any prevailing prejudice is attacked, the wise will consider, and leave the narrow-minded to rail with thoughtless vehemence at innovation."
- Mary Shelley.
35. "What had I to love? Oh many things: there was the moonshine, and the bright stars; the breezes and the refreshing rains; there was the whole earth and the sky that covers it: all lovely forms that visited my imagination, all memories of heroism and virtue."
- Mary Shelley.
Mary Shelley 'Frankenstein' Quotes
'Frankenstein' or 'The Modern Prometheus' has a lot of quotes on evilness and virtuousness. Here are some of the best quotes from the book.
36. "A man would make but a very sorry chemist if he attended to that department of human knowledge alone."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
37. "A dream has power to poison sleep."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
38. "I could not understand why men who knew all about good and evil could hate and kill each other."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
39. "If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear!"
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
40. "I need not describe the feelings of those whose dearest ties are rent by that most irreparable evil."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
41. "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."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
42. "I learned that there was but one means to overcome the sensation of pain, and that was death."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
43. "If I see but one smile on your lips when we meet, occasioned by this or any other exertion of mine, I shall need no other happiness."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
44. "My spirit will sleep in peace; or if it thinks, it will not surely think thus."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
45. "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."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
46. "Even broken in spirit as he is, no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of nature."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
47. "I also became a poet, and for one year lived in a Paradise of my own creation."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
48. "I looked upon the sea, it was to be my grave."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
49. "One wondering thought pollutes the day."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
50. "Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity and ruin."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
51. "With how many things are we on the brink of becoming acquainted, if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our inquiries."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
52. "A mind of moderate capacity which closely pursues one study must infallibly arrive at great proficiency in that study."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
53. "I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
54. "The companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
55. "I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
56. "He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
57. "I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
58. "My education was neglected, yet I was passionately fond of reading."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
59. "It may be judged indecent in me to come forward on this occasion; but when I see a fellow-creature about to perish through the cowardice of her pretended friends, I wish to be allowed to speak, that I may say what I know of her character."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
60. "I once had a friend, the most noble of human creatures, and am entitled, therefore, to judge respecting friendship."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
61. "I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
62. "How much happier that man is who believes his native town to be his world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
63. "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."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
64. "When falsehood can look so like the truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness?"
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
65. "How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that clinging love we have of life even in the excess of misery."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
66. "The whole series of my life appeared to me as a dream; I sometimes doubted if indeed it were all true, for it never presented itself to my mind with the force of reality."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
67. "The time at length arrives when grief is rather an indulgence than a necessity."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
68. "Soon these burning miseries will be extinct."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
69. "I trembled, and my heart failed within me."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
70. "Oh! Be men, or be more than men."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
71. "Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
72. "We are fashioned creatures, but half made up."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
73. "'Man,' I cried, 'how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!'"
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
74. "The starry sky, the sea, and every sight afforded by these wonderful regions, seems still to have the power of elevating his soul from earth."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
75. "I see by your eagerness, and the wonder and hope which your eyes express, my friend."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
76. "I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me, whose eyes would reply to mine."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
77. "Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
78. "Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to a mind when it has once seized on it like a lichen on a rock."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
79. "What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?"
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
80. "Such a man has a double existence: he may suffer misery, and be overwhelmed by disappointments; yet, when he has retired into himself, he will be like a celestial spirit that has a halo around him, within whose circle no grief or folly ventures."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
81. "The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
82. "Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change"
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
Mary Shelly Monster Quotes From 'Frankenstein'
Here are the best Mary Shelley quotes about Frankenstein's monster. These Mary Shelley quotes present the thoughts and turmoil of the monster.
83. "It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another."
- Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.
84 "Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?"
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
85. "All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!"
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
86. "I have strangled the innocent as they slept, and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any other living thing."
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
87. "But soon, I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt."
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
88. "I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous."
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
89. "There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand."
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
90. "Oh, praise the eternal justice of man."
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
91. "Beware, for I am fearless, and therefore powerful."
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
92. "Yet I ask you not to spare me: listen to me; and then, if you can, and if you will, destroy the work of your hands."
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
93. "I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel."
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
94. "Hateful day when I received life."
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
95. "Unhappy man! Do you share my madness?"
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
96. "God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance."
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
97. "The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil."
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
98. "You accuse me of murder; and yet you would, with a satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature."
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
99. "I am malicious because I am miserable."
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
100. "The world was to me a secret which I desired to devine."
- Monster, 'Frankenstein'.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Mary Shelley quotes then why not take a look at Elizabeth Barrett quotes, or Edith Wharton quotes.
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With a wealth of international experience spanning Europe, Africa, North America, and the Middle East, Anusuya brings a unique perspective to her work as a Content Assistant and Content Updating Coordinator. She holds a law degree from India and has practiced law in India and Kuwait. Anusuya is a fan of rap music and enjoys a good cup of coffee in her free time. Currently, she is working on her novel, "Mr. Ivory Merchant".
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