Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

“There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand.”

“Surely once in a life God will grant the earnest entreaty of a loving heart.”

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”

“It is well for the unfortunate to be resigned, but for the guilty there is no peace. The agonies of remorse poison the luxury there is otherwise sometimes found in indulging the excess of grief.”

“I required kindness and sympathy, but I did not believe myself utterly unworthy of it.”

“I felt convinced that however it might have been in former times, in the present stage of the world, no man's faculties could be developed, no man's moral principle be enlarged and liberal, without an extensive acquaintance with books.”

“Youth, elastic and bright, disdains to be compelled. When conquered, from its very chains it forges implements for freedom; it alights from one baffled flight, only again to soar on untired wing towards some other aim. Previous defeat is made the bridge to pass the tide to another shore; and, if that break down, its fragments become stepping stones. It will feed upon despair, and call it a medicine which is to renovate its dying hopes.”