Oh! Be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not. Do not return to your families with the stigma of disgrace marked on your brows. Return as heroes who have fought and conquered, and who know not what it is to turn their backs on the foe.
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyBut success shall crown my endeavours. Wherefore not? Thus far I have gone, tracking a secure way over the pathless seas: the very stars themselves being witnesses and testimonies of my triumph. Why not still proceed over the untamed yet obedient element? What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyEven the eternal skies weep, I thought; is there any shame then, that mortal man should spend himself in tears?
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyI could not understand why men who knew all about good and evil could hate and kill each other.
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyI 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