Mary Wortley Montagu Quotes

Civility costs nothing, and buys everything.

There is nothing can pay one for that invaluable ignorance which is the companion of youth, those sanguine groundless hopes, and that lively vanity which makes all the happiness of life.

People wish their enemies dead - but I do not; I say give them the gout, give them the stone!

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

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

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.

The pretty fellows you speak of, I own entertain me sometimes, but is it impossible to be diverted with what one despises? I can laugh at a puppet show, at the same time I know there is nothing in it worth my attention or regard.

There is no remedy so easy as books, which if they do not give cheerfulness, at least restore quiet to the most troubled mind.

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

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

I prefer liberty to chains of diamonds.

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.

Solitude begets whimsies.

But the fruit that can fall without shaking Indeed is too mellow for me.

It was formerly a terrifying view to me that I should one day be an old woman. I now find that Nature has provided pleasures for every state.

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

While conscience is our friend, all is at peace; however once it is offended, farewell to a tranquil mind.

Whoever will cultivate their own mind will find full employment. Every virtue does not only require great care in the planting, but as much daily solicitude in cherishing as exotic fruits and flowers; the vices and passions (which I am afraid are the natural product of the soil) demand perpetual weeding. Add to this the search after knowledge. . . and the longest life is too short.

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.

See how that pair of billing doves With open murmurs own their loves And, heedless of censorious eyes, Pursue their unpolluted joys: No fears of future want molest The downy quiet of their nest.

You can be pleased with nothing if you are not pleased with yourself.

Satire should, like a polished razor keen, Wound with a touch that's scarcely felt or seen.

A face is too slight a foundation for happiness.

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.

Lord Bacon makes beauty to consist of grace and motion.

I know a love may be revived which absence, inconstancy, or even infidelity has extinguished, but there is no returning from a dTgovt given by satiety.

It goes far towards reconciling me to being a woman, when I reflect that I am thus in no danger of ever marrying one.

I have never, in all my various travels, seen but two sorts of people I mean men and women, who always have been, and ever will be, the same. The same vices and the same follies have been the fruit of all ages, though sometimes under different names.

The use of knowledge in our sex (beside the amusement of solitude) is to moderate the passions and learn to be contented with a small expense, which are the certain effects of a studious life and, it may be, preferable even to that fame which men have engrossed to themselves and will not suffer us to share.

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.

Life is too short for a long story

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

People are never so near playing the fool as when they think themselves wise.

Let this great maxim be my virtue's guide,- In part she is to blame that has been tried: He comes too near that comes to be denied.

I despise the pleasure of pleasing people that I despise.

As I approach a second childhood, I endeavor to enter into the pleasures of it.

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.

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.

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.

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. She will not want new fashions nor regret the loss of expensive diversions or variety of company if she can be amused with an author in her closet.

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

Prudent people are very happy; 'tis an exceeding fine thing, that's certain, but I was born without it, and shall retain to my day of Death the Humour of saying what I think.

'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.

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

It's all been very interesting.

We are no more free agents than the queen of clubs when she victoriously takes prisoner the knave of hearts.

Conscience is justice's best minister; it threatens, promises, rewards, and punishes and keeps all under control; the busy must attend to its remonstrances, the most powerful submit to its reproof, and the angry endure its upbraidings. While conscience is our friend all is peace; but if once offended farewell the tranquil mind.

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

We travellers are in very hard circumstances. If we say nothing but what has been said before us, we are dull and have observed nothing. If we tell anything new, we are laughed at as fabulous and romantic.

No modest man ever did or ever will make a fortune.