Mary Wortley Montagu Quotes

Forgive what you can't excuse ...

A woman, till five-and-thirty, is only looked upon as a raw girl, and can possibly make no noise in the world till about forty.

Whatever is clearly expressed is well wrote.

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

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.

The knowledge of numbers is one of the chief distinctions between us and the brutes.

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

In short I will part with anything for you but you.

I am in perfect health, and hear it said I look better than ever I did in my life, which is one of those lies one is always glad to hear.

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

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.

But the fruit that can fall without shaking Indeed is too mellow for me.

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.

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

Nobody can deny but religion is a comfort to the distressed, a cordial to the sick, and sometimes a restraint on the wicked; therefore whoever would argue or laugh it out of the world without giving some equivalent for it ought to be treated as a common enemy.

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.

Lord Bacon makes beauty to consist of grace and motion.

How many thousands ... earnestly seeking what they do not want, while they neglect the real blessings in their possession
I mean the innocent gratification of their senses, which is all we can properly call our own.

Only a mother knows a mother's fondness.

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

Whoever will cultivate their own mind will find full employment. Every virtue does not only require great care in the planting, but as much daily solicitude in cherishing as exotic fruits and flowers; the vices and passions (which I am afraid are the natural product of the soil) demand perpetual weeding. Add to this the search after knowledge ... and the longest life is too short.

If it were the fashion to go naked, the face would be hardly observed.

I prefer liberty to chains of diamonds.

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

It's all been very interesting.

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

I have never, in all my various travels, seen but two sorts of people I mean men and women, who always have been, and ever will be, the same. The same vices and the same follies have been the fruit of all ages, though sometimes under different names.

People never write calmly but when they write indifferently.

Strictly speaking, there is but one real evil: I mean acute pain. All other complaints are so considerably diminished by time that it is plain the grief is owing to our passion, since the sensation of it vanishes when that is over.

The screech-owl, with ill-boding cry, Portends strange things, old women say; Stops every fool that passes by, And frights the school-boy from his play.

Nature has not placed us in an inferior rank to men, no more than the females of other animals, where we see no distinction of capacity, though I am persuaded if there was a commonwealth of rational horses ... it would be an established maxim amongst them that a mare could not be taught to pace.

We are apt to consider Shakespeare only as a poet; but he was certainly one of the greatest moral philosophers that ever lived.

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.

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

I believe more follies are committed out of complaisance to the world, than in following our own inclinations.

I am patriot enough to take pains to bring this usefull invention into fashion in England, and I should not fail to write to some of our Doctors very particularly about it, if I knew anyone of 'em that I thought had Virtue enough to destroy such a considerable branch of Revenue for the good of Mankind, but that Distemper is too beneficial to them not to expose to all their Resentment the hardy wight that should undertake to put an end to it.

Men are vile inconstant toads.

People wish their enemies dead - but I do not; I say give them the gout, give them the stone!

It's in no way my interest (according to the common acceptance of that word) to convince the world of their errors; that is, I shall get nothing from it but the private satisfaction of having done good to mankind, and I know nobody that reckons that satisfaction any part of their interest.

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

I give myself sometimes admirable advice, but I am incapable of taking it.

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.

General notions are generally wrong.

The pious farmer, who ne'er misses pray'rs, With patience suffers unexpected rain; He blesses Heav'n for what its bounty spares, And sees, resign'd, a crop of blighted grain. But, spite of sermons, farmers would blaspheme, If a star fell to set their thatch on flame.

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

Miserable is the fate of writers: if they are agreeable, they are offensive; and if dull, they starve.

It has all been most interesting.

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.

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.

Nobody should trust their virtue with necessity, the force of which is never known till it is felt, and it is therefore one of the first duties to avoid the temptation of it.

It goes far towards reconciling me to being a woman, when I reflect that I am thus in no danger of ever marrying one.

Making verses is almost as common as taking snuff, and God can tell what miserable stuff people carry about in their pockets, and offer to all their acquaintances, and you know one cannot refuse reading and taking a pinch.

A propos of Distempers, I am going to tell you a thing that I am sure will make you wish your selfe here. The Small Pox so fatal and so general amongst us is here entirely harmless by the invention of engrafting (which is the term they give it). There is a set of old Women who make it their business to perform the Operation.

Nature is indeed a specious ward, nay, there is a great deal in it if it is properly understood and applied, but I cannot bear to hear people using it to justify what common sense must disavow. Is not Nature modifed by art in many things? Was it not designed to be so? And is it not happy for human society that it is so? Would you like to see your husband let his beard grow, until he would be obliged to put the end of it in his pocket, because this beard is the gift of Nature?

None strive to know their proper merit
But strain for wisdom, beauty, spirit
And lose the praise that is their due
When they've the impossible in view

To be reasonable one should never complain but when one hopes redress.

As marriage produces children, so children produce care and disputes; and wrangling.

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.

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.

I don't say 'Tis impossible for an impudent man not to rise in the world, but a moderate merit with a large share of impudence is more probable to be advanced than the greatest qualifications without it.