Mary Wortley Montagu
The familiarities of the gaming-table contribute very much to the decay of politeness ... The pouts and quarrels that naturally arise from disputes must put an end to all complaisance, or even good will towards one another.Collection: Gambling
I regard almost all quarrels of princes on the same footing, and I see nothing that marks man's unreason so positively as war. Indeed, what folly to kill one another for interests often imaginary, and always for the pleasure of persons who do not think themselves even obliged to those who sacrifice themselves for them!Collection: War
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.Collection: Real
There can be no situation in life in which the conversation of my dear sister will not administer some comfort to me.Collection: Sister
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.Collection: Reading
The one thing that reconciles me to the fact of being a woman is the reflection that it delivers me from the necessity of being married to one.Collection: Reflection
It has all been most interesting.Collection: War
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.Collection: Nature
One can never outlive one's vanity.Collection: Vanity
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.Collection: Lying
to be reasonable one should never complain but when one hopes redress.Collection: Complaining
My dear Smollett ... disgraces his talent by writing those stupid romances called history.Collection: Stupid
The use of knowledge in our sex (beside the amusement of solitude) is to moderate the passions and learn to be contented with a small expense, which are the certain effects of a studious life and, it may be, preferable even to that fame which men have engrossed to themselves and will not suffer us to share.Collection: Sex
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.Collection: Stars
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.Collection: Pain
people never write calmly but when they write indifferently.Collection: Writing
I have often observ'd the loudest Laughers to be the dullest Fellows in the Company.Collection: Laughter
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.Collection: Break Out
The most romantic region of every country is that where the mountains unite themselves with the plains or lowlands.Collection: Country
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.Collection: Reflection
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.Collection: Sex
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.Collection: Beauty
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.Collection: Life
Whatever is clearly expressed is well wrote.Collection: Clarity
It's all been very interesting.Collection: Interesting
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.Collection: Men
one would suffer a great deal to be happy.Collection: Happiness
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.Collection: Philosophy
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.Collection: Children
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.Collection: Blame
Remember my unalterable maxim, "When we love, we always have something to say.Collection: Remember
Nobody can deny but religion is a comfort to the distressed, a cordial to the sick, and sometimes a restraint on the wicked.Collection: Sick
No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. She will not want new fashions nor regret the loss of expensive diversions or variety of company if she can be amused with an author in her closet.Collection: Fashion
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.Collection: Acceptance
Tis the established custom [in Vienna] for every lady to have two husbands, one that bears the name, and another that performs the duties.Collection: Husband
Conscience is justice's best minister; it threatens, promises, rewards, and punishes and keeps all under control; the busy must attend to its remonstrances, the most powerful submit to its reproof, and the angry endure its upbraidings. While conscience is our friend all is peace; but if once offended farewell the tranquil mind.Collection: Powerful
I despise the pleasure of pleasing people that I despise.Collection: Humorous
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.Collection: Horse
The knowledge of numbers is one of the chief distinctions between us and the brutes.Collection: Numbers
Muse, time has taught me that all metaphysical systems, even historical facts given as truths, are hardly that, so I amuse myself with more agreeable lies; I no longer read anything but novels.Collection: Lying
Civility cost nothing.Collection: Cost
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.Collection: Love
Men are vile inconstant toads.Collection: Men
Only a mother knows a mother's fondness.Collection: Mother
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?Collection: Art
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.Collection: Passion
As I approach a second childhood, I endeavor to enter into the pleasures of it.Collection: Childhood
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.Collection: Girl
Miserable is the fate of writers: if they are agreeable, they are offensive; and if dull, they starve.Collection: Fate