23 quotes
English writer (1797–1851)
“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.”
"No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks."
on Philosophy
"What is there in our nature that is for ever urging us on towards pain and misery?"
"I do not wish women to have power over men but over themselves."
"The agonies of remorse poison the luxury there is otherwise sometimes found in the excess of grief."
on Wisdom
"A mind of moderate capacity which closely pursues one study must infallibly arrive at great proficiency in that study."
"So much does suffering blunt even the coarsest sensations of men"
on Life
"Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change."
"Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to a mind when it has once seized on it like a lichen on a rock." - Frankenstein p115"
on Knowledge
"Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye."
"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."
on Relationships
"Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos."
on Creativity
"Ah! it is well for the unfortunate to be resigned, but for the guilty there is no peace."
on Guilt
"The labours of men of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind."
"I required kindness and sympathy, but I did not believe myself utterly unworthy of it."
"Those moral laws on which all human excellence is founded—a love of truth in ourselves, and a sincere sympathy with our fellow-creatures."
on Truth
"The beginning is always today."
on Inspirational
"I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit."
"nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose"
"There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand."