119 Quotes by Mary Wortley Montagu

A man that is ashamed of passions that are natural and reasonable is generally proud of those that are shameful and silly.

We should ask, not who is the most learned, but who is the best learned.

It has all been most interesting.

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.

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.

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.

I believe more follies are committed out of complaisance to the world, than in following our own inclinations.

General notions are generally wrong.

The knowledge of numbers is one of the chief distinctions between us and the brutes.