110+ Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Quotes On Education, Friendship And Religion

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English author best known for her novel Frankenstein, one of the earliest works of science fiction. She was the daughter of the philosopher William Godwin and the writer Mary Wollstonecraft, and the wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her other works include the novels Valperga, The Last Man, and Falkner, and the short stories “The Mortal Immortal” and “Transformation.” Following is our collection on famous quotes by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley on education, love, friendship.

Top 10 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Quotes

1. I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.
2. Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.
3. Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?
4. Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.
5. If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear!
6. You are my creator, but I am your master; Obey!
7. I beheld the wretch-the miserable monster whom I had created.
8. There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand.
9. Solitude was my only consolation - deep, dark, deathlike solitude.
10. Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue; and independence I will ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live on a barren heath.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Image Quotes

I beheld the wretch-the miserable monster whom I had created. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Short Quotes

• The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil.
• No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness.
• What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?
• A solitary being is by instinct a wanderer.
• The young are always in extremes.
• Elegance is inferior to virtue.
• Every where I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded.
• Life is obstinate and clings closest where it is most hated.
• Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.
• And the violet lay dead while the odour flew On the wings of the wind o'er the waters blue.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Quotes About Love

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. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

There is love in me the likes of which you've never seen. There is rage in me the likes of which should never escape. If I am not satisfied int he one, I will indulge the other. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

A truce to philosophy!—Life is before me, and I rush into possession. Hope, glory, love, and blameless ambition are my guides, and my soul knows no dread. What has been, though sweet, is gone; the present is good only because it is about to change, and the to come is all my own. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that clinging love we have of life even in the excess of misery! — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

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 Wollstonecraft Shelley

...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 Wollstonecraft Shelley

marriage is usually considered the grave, and not the cradle of love. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Allow me now to return to the cottagers, whose story excited in me such various feelings of indignation, delight, and wonder, but which all terminated in additional love and reverence for my protectors (for so I loved, in an innocent, half painful self-deceit, to call them). — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

I saw no cause for their unhappiness, but I was deeply affected by it. If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange that I, an imperfect and solitary being, should be wretched. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

I am alone and miserable. Only someone as ugly as I am could love me. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Quotes About Death

To examine the causes of life, we must first have recourse to death. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

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 Wollstonecraft Shelley

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. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

If you will comply with my conditions, I will leave them and you at peace; but if you refuse, I will glut the maw of death, until it be satiated with the blood of your remaining friends. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Polluted by crimes, and torn by the bitterest remorse, where can I find rest but in death? — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

One man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Quotes About Mind

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 Wollstonecraft Shelley

Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

. . . the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

A mind of moderate capacity which closely pursues one study must infallibly arrive at great proficiency in that study. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

I feel exquisite pleasure in dwelling on the recollections of childhood, before misfortune had tainted my mind, and changed its bright visions of extensive usefulness into gloomy and narrow reflections upon self. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's scepter, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

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. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

What are we, the inhabitants of this globe, least among the many that people infinite space? Our minds embrace infinity; the visible mechanism of our being is subject to merest accident. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Quotes About Soul

So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein - more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity and ruin. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The air of fashion, which many young people are so eager to attain, always strikes me like the studied attitudes of some modern prints, copied with tasteless servility after the antigue; the soul is left out, and none of the parts are tied together by what may properly be termed character. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The careful rearer of the ductile human plant can instil his own religion, and surround the soul by such a moral atmosphere, as shall become to its latest day the air it breathes. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Nothing is more painful to the human mind than, after the feelings have been worked up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of inaction and certainty which follows and deprives the soul both of hope and fear. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

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. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Quotes About Dreams

My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed - my dearest pleasure when free. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

How dreadful it is, to emerge from the oblivion of slumber, and to receive as a good morrow the mute wailing of one's own hapless heart - to return from the land of deceptive dreams to the heavy knowledge of unchanged disaster! — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

My dreams were at once more fantastic and agreeable than my writings. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

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 Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Famous Quotes And Sayings

I beheld the wretch-the miserable monster whom I had created. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Men become cannibals of their own hearts; remorse, regret, and restless impatience usurp the place of more wholesome feeling: every thing seems better than that which is. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

My candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The agony of my feelings allowed me no respite; no incident occurred from which my rage and misery could not extract its food. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

I am very averse to bringing myself forward in print, but as my account will only appear as an appendage to a former production, and as it will be confined to such topics as have connection with my authorship alone, I can hardly accuse myself of a personal intrusion. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

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. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The instructor can scarcely give sensibility where it is essentially wanting, nor talent to the unpercipient block. But he can cultivate and direct the affections of the pupil, who puts forth, as a parasite, tendrils by which to cling, not knowing to what - to a supporter or a destroyer. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The moon gazed on my midnight labours, while, with unrelaxed and breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding places. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Her countenance was all expression; her eyes were not dark but impenetrably deep; you seemed to discover space after space in their intellectual glance. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

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. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

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 Wollstonecraft Shelley

Devil, do you dare approach me? and do you not fear the fierce vengeance of my arm wreaked on your miserable head? — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

...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 Wollstonecraft Shelley

I see by your eagerness, and the wonder and hope which your eyes express, my friend, that you expect to be in formed of the secret with which I am acquainted. That cannot be. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

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 Wollstonecraft Shelley

Seek happiness in tranquility and avoid ambition even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

When I step into the batter's box, the fans, the noise, the cheers, they all disappear. For that moment, the world is just a battle between me and the pitcher. And more than anything, I want to win. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

I felt emotions of gentleness and pleasure, that had long appeared dead, revive within me. Half surprised by the novelty of these sensations, I allowed myself to be borne away by them, and forgetting my solitude and deformity, dared to be happy. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

I saw and heard of none like me. Was I then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned? — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Invention consists in the capacity of seizing on the capabilities of a subject, and in the power of moulding and fashioning ideas suggested to it. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Unhappy man! Do you share my maddness? Have you drunk also of the intoxicating draught? Hear me; let me reveal my tale, and you will dash the cup from your lips! — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

I saw -- with shut eyes, but acute mental vision -- I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meannesses, cares, and sorrows into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion that they were created rather to feel than reason. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Standing armies can never consist of resolute robust men; they may be well-disciplined machines, but they will seldom contain men under the influence of strong passions, or with very vigorous faculties. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

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, thy creature, to whom thou are bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

There is something so different in Venice from any other place in the world, that you leave at once all accustomed habits and everyday sights to enter an enchanted garden. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Ah! it is well for the unfortunate to be resigned, but for the guilty there is no peace. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

...we are unfashioned creatures, but half made up, if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves - such a friend ought to be - do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Satan has his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and detested. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Oh! Stars and clouds and winds, ye are all about to mock me; if ye really pity me, crush sensation and memory; let me become as nought; but if not, depart, depart, and leave me in darkness. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

From my infancy I was imbued with high hopes and a lofty ambition. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

We could almost believe that we are destined by Providence to an unsettled position on the globe, so invariably is a love of change implanted in the young. It seems as if the eternal Lawgiver intended that, at a certain age, man should leave father, mother, and the dwelling of his infancy, to seek his fortunes over the wide world. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The time at length arrives, when grief is rather an indulgence than a necessity and the smile that plays upon the lips, although it may be deemed a sacrilege, is not banished. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

With how many things are we on the brink of becoming acquainted, if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our inquiries. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out with a cry of pain. How strange, I thought that the same cause should produce such opposite effects. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Our faults are apt to assume giant and exaggerated forms to our eyes in youth. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Truly disappointment is the guardian deity of human life; she sits at the threshold of unborn time, and marshals the events as they come forth. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

But soon, I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain would have rendered him useful in society, had that society been well organized. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

His conversation was marked by its happy abundance. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

We are fashioned creatures, but half made up. - Victor Frankenstein — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Even where the affections are not strongly moved by any superior excellence, the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain. They know our infantine dispositions, which, however they may be afterwards modified, are never eradicated; and they can judge of our actions with more certain conclusions as to the integrity of our motives. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

I cherished hope, it is true, but it vanished when my person reflected . . . — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

After days and nights of incredible labor and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life. Nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Heavy misfortunes have befallen us, but let us only cling closer to what remains, and transfer our love for those whom we have lost to those who yet live. Our circle will be small, but bound close by the ties of affection and mutual misfortune. And when time shall have softened your despair, new and dear objects of care will be born to replace those of whom we have been so cruelly deprived. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Everything must have a beginning ... and that beginning must be linked to something that went before. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Evil thenceforth became my good. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

These wonderful narrations inspired me with strange feelings. Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous, and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He appeared at one time a mere scion of the evil principle and at another as all that can be conceived of noble and godlike. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

I shall commit my thoughts to paper, it is true; but that is a poor medium for the communication of feeling. I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me, whose eyes would reply to mine. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

When falsehood can look so like the truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness? — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change. The sun might shine, or the clouds might lour: but nothing could appear to me as it had done the day before. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

For a moment my soul was elevated from its debasing and miserable fears to which these sights were the monuments and the remembrances. For an instant I dared to shake off my chains, and look around me with a free and lofty spirit; but the iron had eaten into my flesh, and I sank again, trembling and hopeless, into my miserable self. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

I leave a sad and bitter world; and if you remember me, and think of me as of one unjustly condemned, I am resigned to the fate awaiting me. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Life Lessons by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

1. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley teaches us to be resilient in the face of adversity and to never give up on our dreams. She also encourages us to think beyond the norms of society and to strive for greater understanding and empathy. Lastly, she reminds us of the power of imagination and creativity and how it can be used to explore new ideas and possibilities.