Mary Wortley Montagu Quotes

It is 11 years since I have seen my figure in a glass [mirror]. The last reflection I saw there was so disagreeable I resolved to spare myself such mortification in the future.

I prefer liberty to chains of diamonds.

'Tis a sort of duty to be rich, that it may be in one's power to do good, riches being another word for power.

I wish you would moderate that fondness you have for your children. I do not mean you should abate any part of your care, or not do your duty to them in its utmost extent, but I would have you early prepare yourself for disappointments, which are heavy in proportion to their being surprising.

Copiousness of words, however ranged, is always false eloquence, though it will ever impose on some sort of understandings.

I hate the noise and hurry inseparable from great Estates and Titles, and look upon both as blessings that ought only to be given to fools, for 'Tis only to them that they are blessings.

I am patriot enough to take pains to bring this usefull invention into fashion in England, and I should not fail to write to some of our Doctors very particularly about it, if I knew anyone of 'em that I thought had Virtue enough to destroy such a considerable branch of Revenue for the good of Mankind, but that Distemper is too beneficial to them not to expose to all their Resentment the hardy wight that should undertake to put an end to it.

General notions are generally wrong.

There can be no situation in life in which the conversation of my dear sister will not administer some comfort to me.

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.

People commonly educate their children as they build their houses, according to some plan they think beautiful, without considering whether it is suited to the purposes for which they are designed.

I am afraid we are little better than straws upon the water; we may flatter ourselves that we swim, when the current carries us along.

Remember my unalterable maxim, "When we love, we always have something to say.

It has all been most interesting.

And we meet, with champagne and a chicken, at last.

Take back the beauty and wit you bestow upon me; leave me my own mediocrity of agreeableness and genius, but leave me also my sincerity, my constancy, and my plain dealing; 'Tis all I have to recommend me to the esteem either of others or myself.

It'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.

A man that is ashamed of passions that are natural and reasonable is generally proud of those that are shameful and silly.

The ultimate end of your education was to make you a good wife.

I am in perfect health, and hear it said I look better than ever I did in my life, which is one of those lies one is always glad to hear.

Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet; In short, my deary, kiss me, and be quiet.

Lord Bacon makes beauty to consist of grace and motion.

I 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.

The one thing that reconciles me to the fact of being a woman is the reflection that it delivers me from the necessity of being married to one.

to be reasonable one should never complain but when one hopes redress.

Nature is seldom in the wrong, custom always.

The most romantic region of every country is that where the mountains unite themselves with the plains or lowlands.

Miserable is the fate of writers: if they are agreeable, they are offensive; and if dull, they starve.

It's all been very interesting.

Nobody can deny but religion is a comfort to the distressed, a cordial to the sick, and sometimes a restraint on the wicked.

It is the common error of builders and parents to follow some plan they think beautiful (and perhaps is so) without considering that nothing is beautiful that is misplaced.

people never write calmly but when they write indifferently.

How many thousands ... earnestly seeking what they do not want, while they neglect the real blessings in their possession -- I mean the innocent gratification of their senses, which is all we can properly call our own.

I have never had any great esteem for the generality of the fair sex, and my only consolation for being of that gender has been the assurance it gave me of never being married to any one among them.

We are educated in the grossest ignorance, and no art omitted to stifle our natural reason; if some few get above their nurses instructions, our knowledge must rest concealed and be as useless to the world as gold in the mine.

Nature is indeed a specious ward, nay, there is a great deal in it if it is properly understood and applied, but I cannot bear to hear people using it to justify what common sense must disavow. Is not Nature modifed by art in many things? Was it not designed to be so? And is it not happy for human society that it is so? Would you like to see your husband let his beard grow, until he would be obliged to put the end of it in his pocket, because this beard is the gift of Nature?

Making verses is almost as common as taking snuff, and God can tell what miserable stuff people carry about in their pockets, and offer to all their acquaintances, and you know one cannot refuse reading and taking a pinch.

I despise the pleasure of pleasing people that I despise.

Writers of novels and romance in general bring a double loss to their readers; robbing them of their time and money; representing men, manners, and things, that never have been, or are likely to be.

Gardening is certainly the next amusement to reading.

A face is too slight a foundation for happiness.

Begin nothing without considering what the end may be.

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.

one would suffer a great deal to be happy.

In short I will part with anything for you but you.

A propos of Distempers, I am going to tell you a thing that I am sure will make you wish your selfe here. The Small Pox so fatal and so general amongst us is here entirely harmless by the invention of engrafting (which is the term they give it). There is a set of old Women who make it their business to perform the Operation.

I regard almost all quarrels of princes on the same footing, and I see nothing that marks man's unreason so positively as war. Indeed, what folly to kill one another for interests often imaginary, and always for the pleasure of persons who do not think themselves even obliged to those who sacrifice themselves for them!

Only a mother knows a mother's fondness.