Mary Shelley — "My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me."

"My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed - my dearest pleasure when free."

"The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature."

"What does it avail that I am in the midst of a garden, if the flowers bloom not for me?"

"Oh! grief is fantastic; it weaves a web on which to trace the history of its woe from every form and change around; it incorporates itself with all living nature; it finds sustenance in every object; …"

"No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks."