Everything must have a beginning ... and that beginning must be linked to something that went before.
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyYou will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyInvention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyEven 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 ShelleyIt is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of my being
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyI expected this reception. 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 art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life? Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind. 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