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 ShelleyLife, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.
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 ShelleyAll judges had rather that ten innocent should suffer than that one guilty should escape.
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyUnhappy 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 ShelleyA 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