Mary Wortley Montagu Quotes

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• Civility costs nothing, and buys everything.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Cost, Behaviour, Civility

  Letter to her daughter Mary, Countess of Bute, 30 May 1756, in Robert Halsband (ed.) 'The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu' vol. 3 (1967) p. 107

  97 Copy quote

• You can be pleased with nothing if you are not pleased with yourself.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Inspirational, Confidence, Self Love

  9 Copy quote

• True knowledge consists in knowing things, not words.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Knowing, True Knowledge, Knowing Things

  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1803). “The works of the Right Honourable Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: including her correspondence, poems, and essays”, p.183

  6 Copy quote

• Begin nothing without considering what the end may be.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Advice, May, Ends

  8 Copy quote

• People are never so near playing the fool as when they think themselves wise.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Wise, Thinking, People

  Mary Wortley Montagu, James Archibald Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie Wharncliffe (1837). “The Letters and Works: In Three Volumes”, p.111

  9 Copy quote

• No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Book, Reading, Library

  Mary Wortley Montagu (2015). “Letters”, p.554, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

  35 Copy quote

• I prefer liberty to chains of diamonds.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Women, Memorable, Liberty

  Mary Wortley Montagu, James Archibald Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie Wharncliffe (1837). “The Letters and Works: In Three Volumes”, p.269

  14 Copy quote

• 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

  Book, Writing, Giving

  Mary Wortley Montagu (2015). “Letters”, p.642, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

  20 Copy quote

• Satire should, like a polished razor keen, Wound with a touch that's scarcely felt or seen.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Razors, Satire, Should

  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, “Verses Addressed To The Imitator Of The First Satire Of The Second Book Of Horace”

  10 Copy quote

• General notions are generally wrong.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Women, Assessment, Notion

  Letter to her husband Edward Wortley Montagu, 28 March 1710, in Robert Halsband (ed.) 'The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu' vol. 1 (1965) p. 24

  4 Copy quote

• Life is too short for a long story

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Funny, Life, Long

  Mary Wortley Montagu, James Archibald Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie Wharncliffe (1837). “The Letters and Works: In Three Volumes”, p.278

  8 Copy quote

• To always be loved one must ever be agreeable.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Love, Loved Ones

  5 Copy quote

• I despise the pleasure of pleasing people that I despise.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Humorous, People, Profound

  Mary Wortley Montagu (2015). “Letters”, p.85, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Art, Women, Ignorance

  Mary Wortley Montagu, James Archibald Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie Wharncliffe (1837). “The Letters and Works: In Three Volumes”, p.31

  7 Copy quote

• People wish their enemies dead - but I do not; I say give them the gout, give them the stone!

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  People, Giving, Enemy

  Letter from Horace Walpole to the Earl of Harcourt, 17 September 1778, in W. S. Lewis et al. (eds.) 'Horace Walpole's Correspondence' vol. 35 (1973) p. 489

  31 Copy quote

• Gardening is certainly the next amusement to reading.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Reading, Gardening, Amusement

  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1856). “The Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu”, p.376

  5 Copy quote

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

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Study, Human Nature, Pleasure

  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1856). “The Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu”, p.346

  6 Copy quote

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

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Inspirational, Funny, Peace

  9 Copy quote

• In short I will part with anything for you but you.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Love, Cute, Sweet

  Mary Wortley Montagu (2015). “Letters”, p.97, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

  11 Copy quote

• No modest man ever did or ever will make a fortune.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Men, Modesty, Fortune

  Mary Wortley Montagu (2015). “Letters”, p.115, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Views, One Day, Pleasure

  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1825). “The Works of the Right Honourable Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: Including Her Correspondence, Poems, and Essays, Form Her Genuine Papers”, p.419

  11 Copy quote

• Forgive what you can't excuse.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Forgiveness, Forgiving, Excuse

  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1856). “The Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu”, p.347

  7 Copy quote

• Nature is seldom in the wrong, custom always.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Nature, Customs

  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, James Archibald Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie Wharncliffe (1837). “The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu”, p.142

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  Fate, Water, Swim

  Mary Wortley Montagu, James Archibald Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie Wharncliffe (1837). “The Letters and Works: In Three Volumes”, p.279

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Reflection, Glasses, Mirrors

  5 Copy quote

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