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… — Mary Wortley Montagu Copy Share
It's in no way my interest (according to the common acceptance of that word) to convince the world of their errors; that… — Mary Wortley Montagu Copy Share Image
Nobody can deny but religion is a comfort to the distressed, a cordial to the sick, and sometimes a restraint on the… — Mary Wortley Montagu Copy Share Image
It is the common error of builders and parents to follow some plan they think beautiful (and perhaps is so) without considering… — Mary Wortley Montagu Copy Share Image
Making verses is almost as common as taking snuff, and God can tell what miserable stuff people carry about in their pockets,… — Mary Wortley Montagu Copy Share Image
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… — Mary Wortley Montagu Copy Share Image
People wish their enemies dead - but I do not; I say give them the gout, give them the stone! — Mary Wortley Montagu Copy Share Image
Nobody should trust their virtue with necessity, the force of which is never known till it is felt, and it is therefore one of… — Mary Wortley Montagu Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share
I believe more follies are committed out of complaisance to the world, than in following our own inclinations. — Mary Wortley Montagu Copy Share Image
We are educated in the grossest ignorance, and no art omitted to stifle our natural reason; if some few get above their nurses instructions,… — Mary Wortley Montagu Copy Share Image
It is 11 years since I have seen my figure in a glass [mirror]. The last reflection I saw there was so disagreeable I… — Mary Wortley Montagu Copy Share Image
“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… — Mary Wortley Montagu Copy Share Image