Mary Shelley

I was a thing, and I was treated as such.

I was a creation, and I was abandoned by my creator.

I was a being of sorrow, and I was destined to suffer.

I was a being of despair, and I had no hope.

I was a being of darkness, and I was surrounded by light.

I was a being of death, and I longed for life.

I was a being of hatred, and I yearned for love.

I was a being of vengeance, and I sought justice.

I was a being of destruction, and I desired creation.

I was a being of chaos, and I craved order.

I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.

Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose—a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.

The companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain.

If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear!

It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.

Seek happiness in tranquillity and avoid ambition even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries.

All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!

The world to me was a secret, which I desired to divine.

How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that clinging love we have of life even in the excess of misery!

Even broken in spirit as he is, no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of nature. The starry sky, the sea, and every sight afforded by these wonderful regions, seems still to have the power of elevating his soul from earth.