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Advice
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I sometimes give myself admirable advice, but I am incapable of taking it.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Aristocracy
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I hate the noise and hurry inseparable from great Estates and Titles, and look upon both as blessings that ought only to be given to fools, for 'Tis only to them that they are blessings.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Belief
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I have all my life been on my guard against the information conveyed by the sense of hearing -- it being one of my earliest observations, the universal inclination of humankind is to be led by the ears, and I am sometimes apt to imagine that they are given to men as they are to pitchers, purposely that they may be carried about by them.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Conscience
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While conscience is our friend, all is at peace; however once it is offended, farewell to a tranquil mind.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Customs
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Nature is seldom in the wrong, custom always.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Education
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People commonly educate their children as they build their houses, according to some plan they think beautiful, without considering whether it is suited to the purposes for which they are designed.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Face, Faces
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A face is too slight a foundation for happiness.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Family
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The ultimate end of your education was to make you a good wife.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Fate & Destiny
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We are no more free agents than the queen of clubs when she victoriously takes prisoner the knave of hearts.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Growth
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I don't say 'Tis impossible for an impudent man not to rise in the world, but a moderate merit with a large share of impudence is more probable to be advanced than the greatest qualifications without it.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Humanity
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I have never, in all my various travels, seen but two sorts of people I mean men and women, who always have been, and ever will be, the same. The same vices and the same follies have been the fruit of all ages, though sometimes under different names.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Humility
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Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet; In short, my dear, kiss me and be quiet.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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No modest man ever did or ever will make a fortune.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Identity
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Take back the beauty and wit you bestow upon me; leave me my own mediocrity of agreeableness and genius, but leave me also my sincerity, my constancy, and my plain dealing; 'tis all I have to recommend me to the esteem either of others or myself.
-Mary Wortley Montagu, Letter, (published in Selected Letters, ed. by Robert Halsband, 1970), August 21, 1709
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Knowledge
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The use of knowledge in our sex (beside the amusement of solitude) is to moderate the passions and learn to be contented with a small expense, which are the certain effects of a studious life and, it may be, preferable even to that fame which men have engrossed to themselves and will not suffer us to share.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Love
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To always be loved one must ever be agreeable.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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I know a love may be revived which absence, inconstancy, or even infidelity has extinguished, but there is no returning from a d?go?t given by satiety.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Men
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A man that is ashamed of passions that are natural and reasonable is generally proud of those that are shameful and silly.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Men & Women
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Nature has not placed us in an inferior rank to men, no more than the females of other animals, where we see no distinction of capacity, though I am persuaded if there was a commonwealth of rational horses... it would be an established maxim amongst them that a mare could not be taught to pace.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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The pretty fellows you speak of, I own entertain me sometimes, but is it impossible to be diverted with what one despises? I can laugh at a puppet show, at the same time I know there is nothing in it worth my attention or regard.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Necessity
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Nobody should trust their virtue with necessity, the force of which is never known till it is felt, and it is therefore one of the first duties to avoid the temptation of it.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Pain
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Strictly speaking, there is but one real evil: I mean acute pain. All other complaints are so considerably diminished by time that it is plain the grief is owing to our passion, since the sensation of it vanishes when that is over.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Parenting
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I wish you would moderate that fondness you have for your children. I do not mean you should abate any part of your care, or not do your duty to them in its utmost extent, but I would have you early prepare yourself for disappointments, which are heavy in proportion to their being surprising.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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It is the common error of builders and parents to follow some plan they think beautiful (and perhaps is so) without considering that nothing is beautiful that is misplaced.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Progress
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Whoever will cultivate their own mind will find full employment. Every virtue does not only require great care in the planting, but as much daily solicitude in cherishing as exotic fruits and flowers; the vices and passions (which I am afraid are the natural product of the soil) demand perpetual weeding. Add to this the search after knowledge... and the longest life is too short.
-Mary Wortley Montagu
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Books by and about Mary Wortley Montagu