Quotes by 18th-century Women

I saw the radiant Queen of Night
Walking in brightness through the sky...

Woman, a pleasing but a short-lived flower,
Too soft for business and too weak for power:
A wife in bondage, or neglected maid:
Despised, if ugly; if she's fair, betrayed.

I've seen the smiling of Fortune beguiling,
I've felt all its favours and found its decay;
Sweet was its blessing, kind its caressing,
But now it is fled, fled far, far away.

In following their line through, and those of Plantagenet and Tudor, there is but little to soothe the mind.

I remember thinking in my youth that no one was happy but
madmen, drunkards and lovers.

Those possest of the greatest Virtues are always least pleas'd with the repetition of them...

The ordinary manner of spending their time, is the only way of judging of people's inclination and genius.

Dear Lord! while we adoring pay
Our humble thanks to Thee,
May every heart with rapture say,—
"The Saviour died for me!"

The Polish ladies are very vigilant over the conduct of their daughters... in some districts (which is perfectly ridiculous!) they are forced to wear little bells, both before and behind, in order to proclaim where they are and what they are doing.

Elizabeth Craven
Elizabeth Craven
I know that there is not in the world a more subtle poison than that which is extracted from and administered by books.

Charlotte Dacre
Charlotte Dacre
A female mind like a rude fallow lies;
No seed is sown, but weeds spontaneous rise.
As well might we expect, in winter, spring,
As land untilled a fruitful crop should bring.

Nobody is such a fool as to moider away his time in the slip-slop conversation of a pack of women.

When in company with literary women, make no allusions to 'learned ladies,' or 'blue stockings,' or express surprise that they should have any knowledge of housewifery, or needle-work, or dress; or that they are able to talk on 'common things.' It is rude and foolish and shows that you really know nothing about them, either as a class or as individuals.

Eliza Leslie
Eliza Leslie
Yes, yes," said the Beast, "my heart is good, but still I am a monster." Among mankind," says Beauty, "there are many that deserve that name more than you, and I prefer you, just as you are, to those, who, under a human form, hide a treacherous, corrupt, and ungrateful heart.

Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont
Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont
And His that gentle voice we hear,
Soft as the breath of even.

Should we miss but a tree where we used to be playing,
Or find the wood cut where we sauntered a-Maying,—
If the yew-seat's away, or the ivy's a-wanting,
We hate the fine lawn and the new-fashioned planting.
Each thing called improvement seems blackened with crimes,
If it tears up one record of blissful old times.

Susanna Blamire
Susanna Blamire
There are some secrets which scarcely admit of being disclosed even to ourselves.

It were a blessed sight to see That child become a willow tree, His brother trees among. He'd be four times as tall as me, And live three times as long.

Of Madame Letizia Bonaparte:
She was very ignorant, not only of our literature, but of that of her own country.
Letizia Bonaparte was the mother of Napoleon Bonaparte

But thou mayst grant this humble prayer,
Forget me not! forget me not!

How happily, how happily, the flowers die away!
Oh! Could we but return to earth as easily as they.

There is an immeasurable distance between submission to the cross and acceptance of it.

Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna
Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna
"Oh where, and Oh! where is your Highland laddie gone?" "He's gone to fight the French, for King George upon the throne, And it's Oh! in my heart, how I wish him safe at home!"

Dorothea Jordan
Dorothea Jordan
He gets at the substance of a book directly; he tears out the heart of it.
Of Samuel Johnson

Customary interruptions are not only gratifying and cheering, but they are also really necessary in order to gain breath and voice to carry one on through some violent exertions; though after all it must be confessed that silence is the most flattering applause an Actor can receive.

Sarah Siddons
Sarah Siddons