Quotes by 18th-century Women

However profoundly we may penetrate the depths of space, there still remain innumerable systems, compared with which, those which seem so mighty to us must dwindle into insignificance, or even become invisible..

Mary Somerville

I assure you my professions never go beyond my intentions...

Elizabeth Inchbald

To be perfectly polite, one must have great presence of mind, with a delicate and quick sense of propriety; or, in other words, one should be able to form an instantaneous judgment of what is fittest to be said or done, on every occasion as it offers.

.. a dirty exterior is a great enemy to beauty of all descriptions.

Mary Martha Sherwood

Twinkle, twinkle, little star! How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky...

The tranquil current of domestic happiness affords no materials for narrative.

The best way to get the better of temptation is just to yield to it.

Clementina Stirling Graham

Come, swift-wing'd Fancy, airy maid,
In varied, dazzling vest array'd,
Inspire thy vot'ry's lay;
Grant me thy flow'ry walks to tread,
To range thy summer-painted mead,
Or near thy fountain play.
Now led by thy resistless hand,
Or guided by thy fairy wand,
O'er yet untrodden space;
Or on thy pinions borne along,
The bright Ideas' flitting throngs
Pursue th' aerial race.

Elizabeth Bentley

Even quarrels with one's husband are preferable to the ennui of a solitary existence.

Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte

Forever seeking, never found,
In this wide varied scene;
Sole object of unceasing search,
While in this low terrene.
Yet vain the search, if in the heart
Some lurking passion dwell;
For this will hang with cypress wreath
Retirement's secret cell.
In vain the outward scene is calm,
In vain the world we fly;
If thou, in pure religion's garb,
Thy friendly aid deny.

None know how to prize the Saviour, but such as are zealous in pious works for others.

Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon

I have been a slave myself — I know what slaves feel — I can tell by myself what other slaves feel, and by what they have told me. The man that says slaves be quite happy in slavery — that they don't want to be free — that man is either ignorant or a lying person. I never heard a slave say so.

A state of rest is ungraceful; all nature is most beautiful in motion: trees agitated by the wind, a ship under sail, a horse in the course, a fine woman dancing.

Power, when invested in the hands of knaves or fools, generally is the source of tyranny...

Charlotte Charke

Well, but the joy to see my works in print!
Myself too pictur'd in a mezzo-tint!

Mary Jones (poet)

My mother, who disliked me from the bottom of her heart, deliberately did everything, it seemed, that would strengthen and intensify my unbounded passion for freedom and a military life. She wouldn't let me walk in the garden. She wouldn't let me be away from her for even half an hour: I had to sit in her bedroom and make lace. She herself taught me to sew, to knit, and seeing that I had neither the desire nor the ability for this sort of work, that in my hands everything tore or broke, she became angry, lost control of herself, and beat me very painfully on the hands.

Nadezhda Durova

I shall not say why and how I became, at the age of fifteen, the mistress of the Earl of Craven.

Harriette Wilson

After us the deluge.

Madame de Pompadour

O Lord, I wish to promote thy holy religion which is dreadfully neglected. I am desirous to save young persons from the vices of the age.

Early rising is also essential to the good government of a family. A late breakfast deranges the whole business of the day, and throws a portion of it on the next, which opens the door for confusion to enter.

A masquerade, a murdered peer,
His throat just cut from ear to ear—
A rake turned hermit—a fond maid
Run mad, by some false loon betrayed—
These stores supply the female pen,
Which writes them o'er and o'er again,
And readers likewise may be found
To circulate them round and round.

Tis emblematic, the rose of youth and health soon fades when watered by the tear of affliction.

I killed one man to save one hundred thousand.

Charlotte Corday

Time's stern tide, with cold Oblivion's wave, Shall soon dissolve each fair, each fading charm.

Of Samuel John and her husband James Boswell:

I have seen many a bear led by a man: but I never before saw a man led by a bear.

Margaret Boswell