Mary Shelley

I wish therefore that my companion should be wiser and more experienced than myself, to confirm and support me; nor have I believed it impossible to find a true friend.

Even broken in spirit as he is, no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of nature

fore­bod­ings

un­der­tak­ing

sur­pass­ing

for noth­ing con­trib­utes so much to tran­quil­lise the mind as a steady pur­pose—a point on which the soul may fix its in­tel­lec­tual eye

The world was to me a secret which I de­sired to di­vine.

Thus strangely are our souls con­struc­ted, and by such slight lig­a­ments are we bound to prosper­ity or ruin.

if no man al­lowed any pur­suit what­so­ever to in­ter­fere with the tran­quil­lity of his do­mestic af­fec­tions, Greece had not been en­slaved; Cæsar would have spared his coun­try; Amer­ica would have been dis­covered more gradu­ally; and the em­pires of Mex­ico and Peru had not been des­troyed

If this rule were al­ways ob­served; if