Top 380 Mary Shelley Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “Happiness is in its highest degree the sister of goodness.”

— Mary Shelley

152. “Oh, Frankenstein, be not equitable to every other and trample upon me alone, to whom thy justice, and even thy clemency and affection, is most due. Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.”

— Mary Shelley

153. “My feelings became calmer, if it may be called calmness when the violence of rage sinks into the depths of despair.”

— Mary Shelley

154. “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.”

— Mary Shelley

155. “I had resolved in my own mind, that to create another like the fiend I had first made would be an act of the basest and most atrocious selfishness; and I banished from my mind every thought that could lead to a different conclusion.”

— Mary Shelley

156. “I had admired the perfect forms of my cottagers – their grace, beauty, and delicate complexions: but how was I terrified, when I viewed myself in a transparent pool! At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification. Alas! I did not yet entirely know the fatal effects of this miserable deformity.”

— Mary Shelley

157. “I was like the Arabian who had been buried with the dead, and found a passage to life aided only by one glimmering, and seemingly ineffectual, light.”

— Mary Shelley

158. “There was none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist me; and should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No; from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery.”

— Mary Shelley

159. “Let us live for each other and for happiness; let us seek peace in our dear home, near the inland murmur of streams, and the gracious waving of trees, the beauteous vesture of earth, and sublime pageantry of the skies. Let us leave ‘life,’ that we may live.”

— Mary Shelley

160. “I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me?”

— Mary Shelley

161. “I am the assassin of those most innocent victims; they died by my machinations.”

— Mary Shelley

162. “Wandering spirits, if indeed ye wander, and do not rest in your narrow beds, allow me this faint happiness, or take me, as your companion, away from the joys of life.”

— Mary Shelley

163. “That is also my victim!” he exclaimed; “in his murder my crimes are consummated; the miserable series of my being is wound to its close! Oh, Frankenstein! generous and self-devoted being! what does it avail that I now ask thee to pardon me? I, who irretrievably destroyed thee by destroying all thou lovedst. Alas! he is cold; he may not answer me.”

— Mary Shelley

164. “Precious attribute of woe-worn humanity! that can snatch ecstatic emotion, even from under the very share and harrow, that ruthlessly ploughs up and lays waste every hope.”

— Mary Shelley

165. “What a glorious creature must he have been in the days of his prosperity, when he is thus noble and godlike in ruin. He seems to feel his own worth, and the greatness of his fall.”

— Mary Shelley

166. “What is there in our nature that is for ever urging us on towards pain and misery? We are not formed for enjoyment; and, however we may be attuned to the reception of pleasureable emotion, disappointment is the never-failing pilot of our life’s bark, and ruthlessly carries us on to the shoals.”

— Mary Shelley

167. “Heaven shower down blessings on you, and save me, that I may again and again testify my gratitude for all your love and kindness.”

— Mary Shelley

168. “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. Our lives will not be happy, but they will be harmless and free from the misery I now feel.”

— Mary Shelley

169. “And the violet lay dead while the odour flew On the wings of the wind o’er the waters blue.”

— Mary Shelley

170. “The untaught peasant beheld the elements around him and was acquainted with their practical uses. The most learned philosopher knew little more.”

— Mary Shelley

171. “She was no longer that happy creature who in earlier youth wandered with me on the banks of the lake and talked with ecstasy of our future prospects. The first of those sorrows which are sent to wean us from the earth had visited her, and its dimming influence quenched her dearest smiles.”

— Mary Shelley

172. “For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.”

— Mary Shelley

173. “Must I then lose this admirable being? I have longed for a friend; I have sought one who would sympathise with and love me. Behold, on these desert seas I have found such a one; but I fear I have gained him only to know his value and lose him. I would reconcile him to life, but he repulses the idea.”

— Mary Shelley

174. “And I call on you, spirits of the dead; and on you, wandering ministers of vengeance, to aid and conduct me in my work. Let the cursed and hellish monster drink deep of agony; let him feel the despair that now torments me.”

— Mary Shelley

175. “There is love in me the likes of which you’ve never seen. There is rage in me the likes of which should never escape.”

— Mary Shelley

176. “I have ten thousand florins a year without Greek, I eat heartily without Greek.”

— Mary Shelley

177. “These were wild and miserable thoughts; but I cannot describe to you how the eternal twinkling of the stars weighed upon me, and how I listened to every blast of wind, as if it were a dull ugly siroc on its way to consume me.”

— Mary Shelley

178. “Persecuted and tortured as I am and have been, can death be any evil to me?”

— Mary Shelley

179. “Why, all his virtues are derived from his station only; because he is rich, he is called generous; because he is powerful, brave.”

— Mary Shelley

180. “I confess to you, my friend, that I love you and that in my airy dreams of futurity you have been my constant friend and companion.”

— Mary Shelley

181. “I have no friend, Margaret: when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate in my joy; if I am assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavour to sustain me in dejection.”

— Mary Shelley

182. “It had been the mere plaything of nature, when first it crept out of uncreative void into light; but thought brought forth power and knowledge; and, clad with these, the race of man assumed dignity and authority. It was then no longer the mere gardener of earth, or the shepherd of her flocks; “it carried with it an imposing and majestic aspect; it had a pedigree and illustrious ancestors; it had its gallery of portraits, its monumental inscriptions, its records and titles.”

— Mary Shelley

183. “He is eloquent and persuasive; and once his words had even power over my heart: but trust him not. His soul is as hellish as his form, full of treachery and fiend-like malice. Hear.”

— Mary Shelley

184. “I did not participate in these feelings; for to me the walls of a dungeon or a palace were alike hateful.”

— Mary Shelley

185. “Remember, I am not recording the vision of a madman. The sun does not more certainly shine in the heavens, than that which I now affirm is true. Some miracle might have produced it, yet the stages of the discovery were distinct and probable. After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life, nay, more; I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.”

— Mary Shelley

186. “My uncle had an idea of his being educated as an advocate, that through his interest he might become a judge. But, besides that he is not at all fitted for such an occupation, it is certainly more creditable to cultivate the earth for the sustenance of man, than to be the confidant, and sometimes the accomplice, of his vices; which is the profession of a lawyer.”

— Mary Shelley

187. “Such were the professor’s words – rather let me say such the words of the fate – enounced to destroy me. As he went on I felt as if my soul were grappling with a palpable enemy; one by one the various keys were touched which formed the mechanism of my being; chord after chord was sounded, and soon my mind was filled with one thought, one conception, one purpose.”

— Mary Shelley

188. “I love you very tenderly. Remember me with affection, should you never hear from me again.”

— Mary Shelley

189. “I greatly need a friend who would have sense enough not to despise me as romantic, and affection enough for me to endeavour to regulate my mind.”

— Mary Shelley

190. “I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.”

— Mary Shelley

191. “But the latter obtained my undivided attention: wealth was an inferior object; but what glory would attend the discovery, if I could banish disease from the human frame, and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!”

— Mary Shelley

192. “Our faults are apt to assume giant and exaggerated forms to our eyes in youth.”

— Mary Shelley

193. “The nearer I approached to your habitation, the more deeply did I feel the spirit of revenge enkindled in my heart.”

— Mary Shelley

194. “He appeared to despise himself for being the slave of passion.”

— Mary Shelley

195. “I, like the arch-fiend, bore a hell within me, and finding myself unsympathized with, wished to tear up the trees, spread havoc and destruction around me, and then to have sat down and enjoyed the ruin.”

— Mary Shelley

196. “Like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell.”

— Mary Shelley

197. “After the murder of Clerval, I returned to Switzerland, heart-broken and overcome. I pitied Frankenstein; my pity amounted to horror: I abhorred myself.”

— Mary Shelley

198. “Our lives will not be happy, but they will be harmless, and free from the misery I now feel. Oh! my creator, make me happy; let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit!”

— Mary Shelley

199. “Even the eternal skies weep, I thought; is there any shame then, that mortal man should spend himself in tears?”

— Mary Shelley

200. “Begone! I do break my promise; never will I create another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness.”

— Mary Shelley