Top 109 Quotes & Sayings by Mary Wortley Montagu
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English writer Mary Wortley Montagu.
Last updated on December 22, 2024.
Civility costs nothing, and buys everything.
Solitude begets whimsies.
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.
While conscience is our friend, all is at peace; however once it is offended, farewell to a tranquil mind.
In short I will part with anything for you but you.
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.
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.
A man that is ashamed of passions that are natural and reasonable is generally proud of those that are shameful and silly.
Time has the same effect on the mind as on the face; the predominant passion and the strongest feature become more conspicuous from the others' retiring.
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.
We travellers are in very hard circumstances. If we say nothing but what has been said before us, we are dull and have observed nothing. If we tell anything new, we are laughed at as fabulous and romantic.
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.
No modest man ever did or ever will make a fortune.
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.
Life is too short for a long story.
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.
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 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.
The pretty fellows you speak of, I own entertain me sometimes, but is it impossible to be diverted with what one despises? I can laugh at a puppet show, at the same time I know there is nothing in it worth my attention or regard.
No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.
We are no more free agents than the queen of clubs when she victoriously takes prisoner the knave of hearts.
A face is too slight a foundation for happiness.
The ultimate end of your education was to make you a good wife.
I prefer liberty to chains of diamonds.
I wish you would moderate that fondness you have for your children. I do not mean you should abate any part of your care, or not do your duty to them in its utmost extent, but I would have you early prepare yourself for disappointments, which are heavy in proportion to their being surprising.
It's all been very interesting.
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.
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.
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.
General notions are generally wrong.
To always be loved one must ever be agreeable.
People wish their enemies dead - but I do not; I say give them the gout, give them the stone!
I believe more follies are committed out of complaisance to the world, than in following our own inclinations.
Nature is seldom in the wrong, custom always.
one would suffer a great deal to be happy.
Gardening is certainly the next amusement to reading.
Remember my unalterable maxim, "When we love, we always have something to say.
We are educated in the grossest ignorance, and no art omitted to stifle our natural reason; if some few get above their nurses instructions, our knowledge must rest concealed and be as useless to the world as gold in the mine.
Satire should, like a polished razor keen, Wound with a touch that's scarcely felt or seen.
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.
Begin nothing without considering what the end may be.
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.
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.
Take back the beauty and wit you bestow upon me; leave me my own mediocrity of agreeableness and genius, but leave me also my sincerity, my constancy, and my plain dealing; 'Tis all I have to recommend me to the esteem either of others or myself.
I have all my life been on my guard against the information conveyed by the sense of hearing -- it being one of my earliest observations, the universal inclination of humankind is to be led by the ears, and I am sometimes apt to imagine that they are given to men as they are to pitchers, purposely that they may be carried about by them.
Nobody can deny but religion is a comfort to the distressed, a cordial to the sick, and sometimes a restraint on the wicked.
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.
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.
Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet; In short, my deary, kiss me, and be quiet.
People are never so near playing the fool as when they think themselves wise.
Life is too short for a long story
There is no remedy so easy as books, which if they do not give cheerfulness, at least restore quiet to the most troubled mind.
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.
Forgive what you can't excuse.
The knowledge of numbers is one of the chief distinctions between us and the brutes.
I have never had any great esteem for the generality of the fair sex, and my only consolation for being of that gender has been the assurance it gave me of never being married to any one among them.
You can be pleased with nothing if you are not pleased with yourself.
But the fruit that can fall without shaking Indeed is too mellow for me.
Whatever is clearly expressed is well wrote.
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