1689-1762, British Society Figure, Letter Writer
'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.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Wealth]
A face is too slight a foundation for happiness.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Faces]
A man that is ashamed of passions that are natural and reasonable is generally proud of those that are shameful and silly.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Men]
Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet; In short, my dear, kiss me and be quiet.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Modesty]
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.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Promotion]
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.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Aristocracy]
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.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Credulity]
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.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Human Nature]
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.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Love Ended]
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!
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [War]
I sometimes give myself admirable advice, but I am incapable of taking it.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Advice]
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.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Parents and Parenting]
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.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Upbringing]
Life is too short for a long story.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Anecdotes]
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.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Men and Women]
Nature is seldom in the wrong, custom always.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Custom]
No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor is any pleasure so lasting.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Books and Reading]
No modest man ever did or ever will make a fortune.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Modesty]
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.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Religion]
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.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – [Necessity]