Mary Montagu Quotes & Sayings

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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

People never write calmly but when they write indifferently. — Mary Wortley Montagu

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. — Mary Wortley Montagu

Gardening is certainly the next amusement to reading. — Mary Wortley Montagu

The government here is entirely in the hands of the army. The Grand Signor [Ottoman Sultan], with all his absolute power, is as much a slave as any of his subjects, and trembles at a janissary's frown. — Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

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

General notions are generally wrong. — Mary Wortley Montagu

Civility costs nothing and buys everything — Mary Wortley Montagu

The knowledge of numbers is one of the chief distinctions between us and the brutes. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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! — Mary Wortley Montagu

One can never outlive one's vanity. — Mary Wortley Montagu

In short I will part with anything for you but you. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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

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? — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

True knowledge consists in knowing things, not words. — Mary Wortley Montagu

It's all been very interesting. — Mary Wortley Montagu

No modest man ever did or ever will make a fortune. — Mary Wortley Montagu

Whatever is clearly expressed is well wrote. — Mary Wortley Montagu

I give myself sometimes admirable advice, but I am incapable of taking it. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

For God's sake, madam, when you write to me, talk of yourself; there is nothing I so much desire to hear of; talk a great deal of yourself, that she who I always thought talked best may speak upon the best subject.
Alexander Pope to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu — Michael Kelahan

The ultimate end of your education was to make you a good wife. — Mary Wortley Montagu

If it were the fashion to go naked, the face would be hardly observed. — Mary Wortley Montagu

A face is too slight a foundation for happiness. — Mary Wortley Montagu

We should ask, not who is the most learned, but who is the best learned. — Mary Wortley Montagu

One would suffer a great deal to be happy. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

And we meet, with champagne and a chicken, at last. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

But the fruit that can fall without shaking Indeed is too mellow for me. — Mary Wortley Montagu

We have all our playthings. Happy are they who are contented with those they can obtain; those hours are spent in the wisest manner that can easiest shade the ills of life, and are the least productive of ill consequences. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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

Life is too short for a long story. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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 — Mary Wortley Montagu

I have often observ'd the loudest Laughers to be the dullest Fellows in the Company. — Mary Wortley Montagu

People are never so near playing the fool as when they think themselves wise. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

Knowing too much is very apt to make us troublesome to other people — Mary Wortley Montagu

Nature is seldom in the wrong, custom always. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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

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

Only a mother knows a mother's fondness. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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

To be reasonable one should never complain but when one hopes redress. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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

While conscience is our friend, all is at peace; however once it is offended, farewell to a tranquil mind. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

You can be pleased with nothing if you are not pleased with yourself. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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

Men are vile inconstant toads. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

Lord Bacon makes beauty to consist of grace and motion. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

To always be loved one must ever be agreeable. — 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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

The most romantic region of every country is that where the mountains unite themselves with the plains or lowlands. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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

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

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

[On her political writings:] It is, I confess, very possible that these my Labours may only be destined to line Trunks, or preserve roast Meat from too fierce a Fire; yet in that Shape I shall be useful to my Country. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

I prefer liberty to chains of diamonds. — Mary Wortley Montagu

As marriage produces children, so children produce care and disputes; and wrangling. — Mary Wortley Montagu

Forgive what you can't excuse ... — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

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. — Mary Wortley Montagu

[Mary Wortley Montagu] wrote more letters, with fewer punctuation marks, than any Englishwoman of her day; and her nephew, the fourth Baron Rokeby, nearly blinded himself in deciphering the two volumes of undated correspondence which were printed in 1810. Two more followed in 1813, after which the gallant Baron either died at his post or was smitten with despair; for sixty-eight cases of letters lay undisturbed ... 'Les morts n'écrivent point,' said Madame de Maintenon hopefully; but of what benefit is this inactivity, when we still continue to receive their letters? — Agnes Repplier