I don't say 'Tis impossible for an impudent man not to rise in the world, but a moderate merit with a large share of impudence is more probable to be advanced than the greatest qualifications without it.
Mary Wortley MontaguCopiousness of words, however ranged, is always false eloquence, though it will ever impose on some sort of understandings.
Mary Wortley MontaguMy chief study all my life has been to lighten misfortunes and multiply pleasures, as far as human nature can.
Mary Wortley MontaguIt's in no way my interest (according to the common acceptance of that word) to convince the world of their errors; that is, I shall get nothing from it but the private satisfaction of having done good to mankind, and I know nobody that reckons that satisfaction any part of their interest.
Mary Wortley MontaguI have all my life been on my guard against the information conveyed by the sense of hearing -- it being one of my earliest observations, the universal inclination of humankind is to be led by the ears, and I am sometimes apt to imagine that they are given to men as they are to pitchers, purposely that they may be carried about by them.
Mary Wortley Montagu