45+ Victor Frankenstein Quotes From Mary Shelley's Troubled Scientist

Victor Frankenstein is an important character in the great book by Mary Shelley, 'Frankenstein'.

Loneliness and alienation are both significant symbolic themes of the book. All the main characters of the story feel loneliness and alienation at some point.

Victor, the main character of the book by Mary Shelley, is a symbolic element of ambition devoid of responsibility or conscience. He held a conceited opinion that he could usurp God's role. Victor's fatal flaw was that he could use his power to create life which directly led to ruinous consequences for him. In Victor's final words in the book, he withdraws his earlier warnings about the dangers of holding or aspiring to too much ambition. "Yet why do I say this? I have myself been blasted in these hopes; yet another may succeed."

While you enjoy these 'Frankenstein' Victor quotes about vengeance, revenge, love, life and death, check out our Mary Shelley quotes and ['Frankenstein' monster quotes].

‍

Victor's quote on nature, earth and science show how he harnessed the powers of science for personal gain in the creation of his famous monster creature.

1. "The natural phenomena that take place every day before our eyes did not escape my examinations."

-Victor.

2. "My father was not scientific, and I was left to struggle with a child's blindness, added to a student's thirst for knowledge."

-Victor.

3. "What may not be expected in a country of eternal light?"

-Victor.

4. "It was a divine spring, and the season contributed greatly to my convalescence."

-Victor.

5. "The starry sky, the sea, and every sight afforded by these wonderful regions seem still to have the power of elevating his soul from earth."

-Victor.

6. "I suddenly left my home and bending my steps towards the near Alpine valleys, sought in the magnificence..."

-Victor.

7. "I cannot describe to you the agony that these reflections inflicted upon me."

-Victor.

Victor's thoughts on selfishness reflect the selfish moments faced by Mary Shelley in her own life, which are reflected in the tragedy within the story.

8. "And do I dare to ask of you to understand my pilgrimage... No, I am not selfish... and survive to add to the list of his dark crimes."

-Victor.

9." ...but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart."

-Victor.

10. "I avoided an explanation and maintained a continual silence concerning the wretch I had created."

-Victor.

11. "A thousand times rather would I confessed myself guilty of the crime ascribed to Justine, but such ravings would accuse me of being a madman."

-Victor.

12. "Life... is dear to me, and I will defend it."

-Victor.

13. "All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me."

-Victor.

Here are a few Victor Frankenstein quotes on isolation. Victor himself was rather lonely in 'Frankenstein' after he lost contact with all of his loved ones.

14. "I had never yet seen a being resembling me, or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I?"

-Victor.

15. " ...the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow-creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime."

-Victor.

16. "And what was I? Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant, but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property."

-Victor.

17. "Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred."

-Victor.

18."No one can conceive the anguish I suffered during the remainder of the night, which I spent, cold and wet, in the open air."

-Victor.

19. "I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me; whose eyes would reply to mine."

-Victor.

20. "Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone."

-Victor.

These Victor quotes on lost friendship may make a reader feel sad and emotional.

21. "I once had a friend, the noblest of human creatures, and am entitled, therefore, to judge respecting friendship."

-Victor.

22. "I, who had ever been surrounded by amiable companions, continually engaged in endeavoring to bestow mutual pleasure – I was now alone."

-Victor.

23. "... I believed myself totally unfitted for the company of strangers."

-Victor.

24. "The companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain."

-Victor.

25. "How sweet is the affection of others to such a wretch as I am!"

-Victor.

26. "We are unfashioned creatures, but half made up, if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves – such a friend ought to be..."

-Victor.

27. "Study had before secluded me from the intercourse of my fellow-creatures and rendered me unsocial, but Clerval called forth the better feelings of my heart;"

-Victor.

Victor shares his thoughts on remorse, regret and misery.

28. "The form of the monster on whom I had bestowed existence was forever before my eyes, and I raved incessantly concerning him."

-Victor.

29. "Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep."

-Victor.

30. "Alas! I had turned loose into the world a depraved wretch, whose delight was in carnage and misery; had he not murdered my brother?"

-Victor.

31. " ... 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."

-Victor.

32. "Nothing in human shape could have destroyed that fair child. He was the murderer! I could not doubt it."

-Victor.

33. "The tortures of the accused did not equal mine; she was sustained by innocence, but the fangs of remorse tore my bosom and would not forego their hold."

-Victor.

34. "I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures as no language can describe."

-Victor.

Here are a few thoughts related to Victor and the monster, and their experience with family from the novel.

35. "... the result was that Elizabeth Lavenza became the inmate of my parents' house—my more than sister—the beautiful and adored companion of all my occupations and my pleasures."

-Victor.

36. "You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being..."

-Victor.

37. "No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence..."

-Victor.

Why not read some quotes about Victor Frankenstein and his ambition that led to his ruin in the book.

38. "I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body."

-Victor.

39. "My life might have been passed in ease and luxury, but I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path."

-Victor.

40. "Seek happiness in tranquillity, and avoid ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries."

-Victor.

41."For when I would account to myself for the birth of that passion, which afterward ruled my destiny... "

-Victor.

42. "I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation."

-Victor.

These prominent thoughts on work and knowledge by Victor symbolize enlightenment and discovery. Nothing was more important to Victor than his work.

43. "I at once gave up my former occupations, set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation, and entertained the greatest disdain for a would-be science which could never even step within the threshold of real knowledge."

-Victor.

44. "Whither does your senseless curiosity lead you?"

-Victor.

45. "You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you as mine has been."

-Victor.

46. "I tried to dispel them, but sorrow only increased with knowledge."

-Victor.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully curated lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you love these Victor Frankenstein quotes by Mary Shelley, then why not take a look at our Alexander Pope quotes or Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn quotes for more related quotes?

‍Main image credit: Claudia Longo / Shutterstock.com