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.

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

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

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

I prefer liberty to chains of diamonds.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Lord Bacon makes beauty to consist of grace and motion.

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.

I despise the pleasure of pleasing people that I despise.

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

'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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Begin nothing without considering what the end may be.

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

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

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.

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

Life is too short for a long story

It's all been very interesting.

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.

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.

Forgive what you can't excuse.

My chief study all my life has been to lighten misfortunes and multiply pleasures, as far as human nature can.

True knowledge consists in knowing things, not words.

one would suffer a great deal to be happy.

It is 11 years since I have seen my figure in a glass [mirror]. The last reflection I saw there was so disagreeable I resolved to spare myself such mortification in the future.

Philosophy is the toil which can never tire persons engaged in it. All ways are strewn with roses, and the farther you go, the more enchanting objects appear before you and invite you on.

My health is so often impaired that I begin to be as weary of it as mending old lace; when it is patched in one place, it breaks out in another.

Gardening is certainly the next amusement to reading.

Only a mother knows a mother's fondness.