{ "type": "book", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "title": "Frankenstein", "slug": "frankenstein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein.md", "author": { "name": "Mary Shelley", "slug": "mary-shelley", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley" }, "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/union-square-co/mary-shelley/frankenstein_978-14-5496-200-7.jpg", "quotes_count": 52, "quotes": [ { "id": "ff11e39d-d98f-4d35-8682-72544d60b927", "slug": "oh-be-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/oh-be-men", "text": "Oh! Be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "courage", "slug": "courage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage" }, { "name": "willpower", "slug": "willpower", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/willpower" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "ecd146f6-5d02-472b-919e-a3cab6f988ad", "slug": "by-the-sacred", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/by-the-sacred", "text": "By the sacred earth on which I kneel, by the shades that wander near me, by the deep and eternal grief that I feel, I swear; and by thee, O Night, and the spirits that preside over thee, to pursue the daemon who caused this misery, until he or I shall perish in mortal conflict. For this purpose I will preserve my life; to execute this dear revenge will I again behold the sun and tread the green herbage of earth, which otherwise should vanish from my eyes forever. And I call on you, spirits of the dead, and on you, wandering ministers of vengeance, to aid and conduct me in my work. Let the cursed and hellish monster drink deep of agony; let him feel the despair that now torments me.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "revenge", "slug": "revenge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/revenge" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "dd0cc894-159a-49f5-8209-f272930cd558", "slug": "invention-it-must", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/invention-it-must", "text": "Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos; the materials must, in the first place, be afforded: it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself. In all matters of discovery and invention, even of those that appertain to the imagination, we are continually reminded of the story of Columbus and his egg. Invention consists in the capacity of seizing on the capabilities of a subject, and in the power of moulding and fashioning ideas suggested to it.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "imagination", "slug": "imagination", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley#Introduction_to_the_1831_edition_of_Frankenstein", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "bf21c3d7-14ff-4e0a-978e-59c3551317aa", "slug": "how-mutable-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/how-mutable-are", "text": "How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that clinging love we have of life even in the excess of misery!", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "emotions", "slug": "emotions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emotions" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "bedb8f15-eb24-4301-8fa6-e5bc405af545", "slug": "nothing-is-so-painful", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/nothing-is-so-painful", "text": "Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change. The sun might shine or the clouds might lower, but nothing could appear to me as it had done the day before. A fiend had snatched from me every hope of future happiness; no creature had ever been so miserable as I was; so frightful an event is single in the history of man. But why should I dwell upon the incidents that followed this last overwhelming event? Mine has been a tale of horrors; I have reached their acme, and what I must now relate can but be tedious to you. Know that, one by one, my friends were snatched away; I was left desolate.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "bb8638bd-cf02-4874-8fcd-433d81335c30", "slug": "death-snatches-away", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/death-snatches-away", "text": "Death snatches away many blooming children, the only hopes of their doting parents; how many brides and youthful lovers have been one day in the bloom of health and hope, and the next a prey for worms and the decay of the tomb! Of what materials was I made that I could thus resist so many shocks, which, like the turning of the wheel, continually renewed the torture?", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "ada69c6a-8675-4b48-8a3b-a1dcd34fb1e5", "slug": "oh-when-will", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/oh-when-will", "text": "Oh! When will my guiding spirit, in conducting me to the daemon, allow me the rest I so much desire; or must I die, and he yet live? If I do, swear to me, Walton, that he shall not escape, that you will seek him and satisfy my vengeance in his death. And do I dare to ask of you to undertake my pilgrimage, to endure the hardships that I have undergone? No; I am not so selfish. Yet, when I am dead, if he should appear, if the ministers of vengeance should conduct him to you, swear that he shall not live – swear that he shall not triumph over my accumulated woes and survive to add to the list of his dark crimes. He is eloquent and persuasive, and once his words had even power over my heart; but trust him not. His soul is as hellish as his form, full of treachery and fiend-like malice. Hear him not...", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "revenge", "slug": "revenge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/revenge" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "90260f7a-274e-45db-8643-351d55de19f6", "slug": "i-seek-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-seek-not", "text": "I seek not a fellow feeling in my misery. No sympathy may I ever find. When I first sought it, it was the love of virtue, the feelings of happiness and affection with which my whole being overflowed, that I wished to be participated. But now that virtue has become to me a shadow, and that happiness and affection are turned into bitter and loathing despair, in what should I seek for sympathy? I am content to suffer alone while my sufferings shall endure; when I die, I am well satisfied that abhorrence and opprobrium should load my memory. Once my fancy was soothed with dreams of virtue, of fame, and of enjoyment. Once I falsely hoped to meet with beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of unfolding. I was nourished with high thoughts of honour and devotion. But now crime has degraded me beneath the meanest animal. No guilt, no mischief, no malignity, no misery, can be found comparable to mine. When I run over the frightful catalogue of my sins, I cannot believe that I am the same creature whose thoughts were once filled with sublime and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty of goodness. But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "evil", "slug": "evil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil" }, { "name": "guilt", "slug": "guilt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/guilt" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "8c7e14ec-048e-453b-9bca-eec86e652f78", "slug": "my-dreams-were", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/my-dreams-were", "text": "My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed — my dearest pleasure when free.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "dreams and aspirations", "slug": "dreams-and-aspirations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley#Introduction_to_the_1831_edition_of_Frankenstein", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "8473cfae-d776-443e-aeb3-d4d23898257a", "slug": "i-shall-die", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-shall-die", "text": "I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly and exult in the agony of the torturing flames. The light of that conflagration will fade away; my ashes will be swept into the sea by the winds. My spirit will sleep in peace, or if it thinks, it will not surely think thus. Farewell.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "83b53582-eb57-4032-be42-78d1bd825b53", "slug": "heavy-misfortunes-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/heavy-misfortunes-have", "text": "Heavy misfortunes have befallen us, but let us only cling closer to what remains and transfer our love for those whom we have lost to those who yet live.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "loss", "slug": "loss", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loss" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "7a4b4ee8-e82e-4a56-85b9-a5e629494cf1", "slug": "i-busied-myself", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-busied-myself", "text": "I busied myself to think of a story, — a story to rival those which had excited us to this task. One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling horror—one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart. If I did not accomplish these things, my ghost story would be unworthy of its name.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "writing", "slug": "writing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley#Introduction_to_the_1831_edition_of_Frankenstein", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "6dbd5137-dfb4-4043-a712-8e821ac00690", "slug": "you-who-call", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/you-who-call", "text": "You, who call Frankenstein your friend, seem to have a knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes. But in the detail which he gave you of them he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured wasting in impotent passions. For while I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires. They were forever ardent and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against me?", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "6064c9d1-6749-4f59-a992-dd9a51d6657d", "slug": "from-my-infancy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/from-my-infancy", "text": "From my infancy I was imbued with high hopes and a lofty ambition; but how am I sunk! Oh! My friend, if you had known me as I once was, you would not recognize me in this state of degradation. Despondency rarely visited my heart; a high destiny seemed to bear me on, until I fell, never, never again to rise.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "ambition", "slug": "ambition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ambition" }, { "name": "despair", "slug": "despair", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/despair" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "5ced4cbf-9358-4680-88cd-29c7a8eeb862", "slug": "i-the-miserable", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-the-miserable", "text": "I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on. Even now my blood boils at the recollection of this injustice. But it is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any other living thing. I have devoted my creator, the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men, to misery; I have pursued him even to that irremediable ruin. There he lies, white and cold in death. You hate me, but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hatred", "slug": "hatred", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hatred" }, { "name": "guilt", "slug": "guilt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/guilt" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "5535045f-0da6-474e-9af1-7aed7b14dee2", "slug": "some-years-ago", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/some-years-ago", "text": "Some years ago, when the images which this world affords first opened upon me, when I felt the cheering warmth of summer and heard the rustling of the leaves and the warbling of the birds, and these were all to me, I should have wept to die; now it is my only consolation. Polluted by crimes and torn by the bitterest remorse, where can I find rest but in death?", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "guilt", "slug": "guilt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/guilt" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "4a71ed8a-5827-4280-9109-09f60ca7529d", "slug": "as-a-child", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/as-a-child", "text": "As a child I scribbled; and my favourite pastime, during the hours given me for recreation, was to \"write stories.\" Still I had a dearer pleasure than this, which was the formation of castles in the air—the indulging in waking dreams—the following up trains of thought, which had for their subject the formation of a succession of imaginary incidents. My dreams were at once more fantastic and agreeable than my writings.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "writing", "slug": "writing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing" }, { "name": "imagination", "slug": "imagination", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination" }, { "name": "dreams and aspirations", "slug": "dreams-and-aspirations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley#Introduction_to_the_1831_edition_of_Frankenstein", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "4890bee6-a484-4565-82a3-5513411ae7a2", "slug": "my-heart-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/my-heart-was", "text": "My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "evil", "slug": "evil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "21b37f4f-952f-45b8-af31-8f4291e99d0c", "slug": "even-where-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/even-where-the", "text": "Even where the affections are not strongly moved by any superior excellence, the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain. They know our infantine dispositions, which, however they may be afterwards modified, are never eradicated; and they can judge of our actions with more certain conclusions as to the integrity of our motives.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "friendship", "slug": "friendship", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/friendship" }, { "name": "childhood", "slug": "childhood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "0cd1ae39-d802-4ff5-9146-e64ffd1ac395", "slug": "to-me-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/to-me-the", "text": "To me the walls of a dungeon or a palace were alike hateful. The cup of life was poisoned forever, and although the sun shone upon me, as upon the happy and gay of heart, I saw around me nothing but a dense and frightful darkness...", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "despair", "slug": "despair", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/despair" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "063d93ea-4e65-4ab6-a024-d40d5d316795", "slug": "what-terrified-me-will", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/what-terrified-me-will", "text": "What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "writing", "slug": "writing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley#Introduction_to_the_1831_edition_of_Frankenstein", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:47" }, { "id": "f90b814c-1832-4593-b98e-00d7708f365b", "slug": "i-am-an-unfortunate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-am-an-unfortunate", "text": "I am an unfortunate and deserted creature, I look around and I have no relation or friend upon earth. These amiable people to whom I go have never seen me and know little of me. I am full of fears, for if I fail there, I am an outcast in the world forever.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "f8fa9f7c-d951-4ddb-9031-5d9c01eab47d", "slug": "live-and-be-happy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/live-and-be-happy", "text": "Live, and be happy, and make others so.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "e6234f76-7266-4628-95fa-e605a0b478de", "slug": "i-admired-virtue", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-admired-virtue", "text": "I admired virtue and good feelings and loved the gentle manners and amiable qualities of my cottagers, but I was shut out from intercourse with them, except through means which I obtained by stealth, when I was unseen and unknown, and which rather increased than satisfied the desire I had of becoming one among my fellows.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "e13e6a59-0988-404c-8fc7-03a0adbae210", "slug": "the-more-i-saw", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/the-more-i-saw", "text": "The more I saw of them, the greater became my desire to claim their protection and kindness; my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures; to see their sweet looks directed towards me with affection was the utmost limit of my ambition. I dared not think that they would turn them from me with disdain and horror.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "c4fcd02c-e050-4d7c-bba7-9d4ffce8ccc8", "slug": "i-felt-as", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-felt-as", "text": "I felt as if my soul were grappling with a palpable enemy; one by one the various keys were touched which formed the mechanism of my being; chord after chord was sounded, and soon my mind was filled with one thought, one conception, one purpose. So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein – more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "ambition", "slug": "ambition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ambition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "b9638a56-cd5c-44f1-a5f6-c52c383c5d25", "slug": "i-am-alone", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-am-alone", "text": "I am alone and miserable; man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species and have the same defects. This being you must create.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "b3339678-56bc-4311-926d-72a69570af4e", "slug": "unfeeling-heartless-creator", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/unfeeling-heartless-creator", "text": "Unfeeling, heartless creator! You had endowed me with perceptions and passions and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind. But on you only had I any claim for pity and redress, and from you I determined to seek that justice which I vainly attempted to gain from any other being that wore the human form.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "b02086f4-583b-4605-9404-67140652e628", "slug": "the-different-accidents", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/the-different-accidents", "text": "The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "emotions", "slug": "emotions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emotions" }, { "name": "disappointment", "slug": "disappointment", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/disappointment" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "af13473e-4f30-40c1-b7dc-19a4798c3b02", "slug": "we-are-unfashioned", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/we-are-unfashioned", "text": "We are unfashioned creatures, but half made up, if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves – such a friend ought to be – do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "friendship", "slug": "friendship", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/friendship" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "a498f009-a914-4762-b001-37eac27494fb", "slug": "while-i-listened", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/while-i-listened", "text": "While I listened to the instructions which Felix bestowed upon the Arabian, the strange system of human society was explained to me. I heard of the division of property, of immense wealth and squalid poverty, of rank, descent, and noble blood. The words induced me to turn towards myself. I learned that the possessions most esteemed by your fellow creatures were high and unsullied descent united with riches. A man might be respected with only one of these advantages, but without either he was considered, except in very rare instances, as a vagabond and a slave, doomed to waste his powers for the profits of the chosen few! And what was I? Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant, but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was, besides, endued with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature as man. I was more agile than they and could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded theirs. When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned? I cannot describe to you the agony that these reflections inflicted upon me; I tried to dispel them, but sorrow only increased with knowledge. Oh, that I had forever remained in my native wood, nor known nor felt beyond the sensations of hunger, thirst, and heat!", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "knowledge", "slug": "knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge" }, { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" }, { "name": "poverty", "slug": "poverty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty" }, { "name": "sadness", "slug": "sadness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sadness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "a2431247-5b59-4b41-821f-4a783c2c46c5", "slug": "the-ancient-teachers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/the-ancient-teachers", "text": "The ancient teachers of this science promised impossibilities, and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted and that the elixir of life is a chimera. But these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding-places. They ascend into the heavens; they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breathe. They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "99515d3a-3927-4c64-b08b-7e8354472241", "slug": "learn-from-me-if-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/learn-from-me-if-not", "text": "Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "knowledge", "slug": "knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge" }, { "name": "ambition", "slug": "ambition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ambition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "94ea172c-645c-4658-bf5e-caaedb3ea808", "slug": "what-can-stop", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/what-can-stop", "text": "What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "willpower", "slug": "willpower", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/willpower" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "8c59cc5e-0f94-4d32-8d0e-ec2a3553645b", "slug": "it-is-decided", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/it-is-decided", "text": "It is decided as you may have expected; all judges had rather that ten innocent should suffer than that one guilty should escape. But she has confessed.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "innocence", "slug": "innocence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/innocence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "8a7497c1-3c3d-40ce-940b-00fcafdce98b", "slug": "slave-i-before", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/slave-i-before", "text": "Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself unworthy of my condescension. Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you. You are my creator, but I am your master; obey!", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "890997d2-d411-4c0a-9e22-dbb0d007571c", "slug": "my-person-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/my-person-was", "text": "My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "8678e211-fefe-48a4-bb13-4e3c2cb1ade2", "slug": "i-expected-this", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-expected-this", "text": "I expected this reception... All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life?", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "hatred", "slug": "hatred", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hatred" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "8650f2c4-adc1-4d5e-9352-dac466625b30", "slug": "i-had-feelings", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-had-feelings", "text": "I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn. Man! You may hate, but beware! Your hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish from you your happiness forever. Are you to be happy while I grovel in the intensity of my wretchedness? You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains – revenge, henceforth dearer than light or food! I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery. Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful. I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom. Man, you shall repent of the injuries you inflict.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "revenge", "slug": "revenge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/revenge" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "6ed07ddd-6e04-4571-b534-39707d227566", "slug": "i-have-one", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-have-one", "text": "I have one want which I have never yet been able to satisfy, and the absence of the object of which I now feel as a most severe evil, I have no friend, Margaret: when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate my joy; if I am assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavor to sustain me in dejection. I shall commit my thoughts to paper, it is true; but that is a poor medium for the communication of feeling.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "friendship", "slug": "friendship", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/friendship" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "6d2cfdb1-5105-4c2e-8ba7-da85907309b6", "slug": "there-is-something", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/there-is-something", "text": "There is something at work in my soul which I do not understand. I am practically industrious – painstaking, a workman to execute with perseverance and labour – but besides this there is a love for the marvellous, a belief in the marvellous, intertwined in all my projects, which hurries me out of the common pathways of men, even to the wild sea and unvisited regions I am about to explore.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "secrets", "slug": "secrets", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/secrets" }, { "name": "curiosity", "slug": "curiosity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/curiosity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "5f7dc4ba-060c-4686-86e3-f2dc5b336629", "slug": "i-must-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-must-not", "text": "I must not be trifled with, and I demand an answer. If I have no ties and no affections, hatred and vice must be my portion; the love of another will destroy the cause of my crimes, and I shall become a thing of whose existence everyone will be ignorant. My vices are the children of a forced solitude that I abhor, and my virtues will necessarily arise when I live in communion with an equal. I shall feel the affections of a sensitive being and become linked to the chain of existence and events from which I am now excluded.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "evil", "slug": "evil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "5870c0c7-855f-49f8-b257-1f253910a0f9", "slug": "paradise-lost-excited", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/paradise-lost-excited", "text": "Paradise Lost excited different and far deeper emotions. I read it, as I had read the other volumes which had fallen into my hands, as a true history. It moved every feeling of wonder and awe that the picture of an omnipotent God warring with his creatures was capable of exciting. I often referred the several situations, as their similarity struck me, to my own. Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but his state was far different from mine in every other respect. He had come forth from the hands of God a perfect creature, happy and prosperous, guarded by the especial care of his Creator; he was allowed to converse with and acquire knowledge from beings of a superior nature, but I was wretched, helpless, and alone.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "literature", "slug": "literature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "545157c0-0b81-4f3a-80df-2f87767ca80e", "slug": "let-your-compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/let-your-compassion", "text": "Let your compassion be moved, and do not disdain me. Listen to my tale; when you have heard that, abandon or commiserate me, as you shall judge that I deserve. But hear me. The guilty are allowed, by human laws, bloody as they are, to speak in their own defense before they are condemned. Listen to me, Frankenstein. You accuse me of murder, and yet you would, with a satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature. Oh, praise the eternal justice of man! Yet I ask you not to spare me; listen to me, and then, if you can, and if you will, destroy the work of your hands.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "4898407e-3e59-4a03-acb4-98580b3a81fc", "slug": "one-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/one-of-the", "text": "One of the phenomena which had peculiarly attracted my attention was the structure of the human frame, and, indeed, any animal endued with life. Whence, I often asked myself, did the principle of life proceed? It was a bold question, and one which has ever been considered as a mystery; yet with how many things are we upon the brink of becoming acquainted, if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our inquiries.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "curiosity", "slug": "curiosity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/curiosity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "395903c5-9296-4410-a62d-7d8bd4ecf45a", "slug": "i-have-good", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-have-good", "text": "I have good dispositions; my life has been hitherto harmless and in some degree beneficial; but a fatal prejudice clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they behold only a detestable monster.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "prejudice", "slug": "prejudice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prejudice" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "35606085-8f64-45d3-a538-f864c90c5e9a", "slug": "not-the-tenderness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/not-the-tenderness", "text": "Not the tenderness of friendship, nor the beauty of earth, nor of heaven, could redeem my soul from woe; the very accents of love were ineffectual. I was encompassed by a cloud which no beneficial influence could penetrate.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "despair", "slug": "despair", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/despair" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "286b19df-eed1-45e0-a714-d321e618d08c", "slug": "i-feel-my-heart", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-feel-my-heart", "text": "I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevates me to heaven, for nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose – a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "peace of mind", "slug": "peace-of-mind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/peace-of-mind" }, { "name": "purpose", "slug": "purpose", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/purpose" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "26b8172d-96ee-4d39-ab20-70f2844339d9", "slug": "i-am-content", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-am-content", "text": "I am content to reason with you. I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me? ... Shall I respect man when he condemns me? Let him live with me in the interchange of kindness, and instead of injury I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at his acceptance. But that cannot be; the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union. Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject slavery. I will revenge my injuries; if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear, and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care; I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "hatred", "slug": "hatred", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hatred" }, { "name": "revenge", "slug": "revenge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/revenge" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "23722f22-0715-46bc-add5-aa01e1073161", "slug": "i-did-confess", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/i-did-confess", "text": "I did confess, but I confessed a lie. I confessed, that I might obtain absolution; but now that falsehood lies heavier at my heart than all my other sins. The God of heaven forgive me! Ever since I was condemned, my confessor has besieged me; he threatened and menaced, until I almost began to think that I was the monster that he said I was. He threatened excommunication and hell fire in my last moments if I continued obdurate. Dear lady, I had none to support me; all looked on me as a wretch doomed to ignominy and perdition. What could I do? In an evil hour I subscribed to a lie; and now only am I truly miserable.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "lies", "slug": "lies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies" }, { "name": "guilt", "slug": "guilt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/guilt" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "230fc58e-9c92-4aad-aaaa-8f98f41e1f98", "slug": "no-one-can", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/no-one-can", "text": "No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "ambition", "slug": "ambition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ambition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "0c9dc5d4-577a-4643-8cc4-7a1db523980b", "slug": "remember-that-i-am-thy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/remember-that-i-am-thy", "text": "Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good – misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "evil", "slug": "evil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil" }, { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" } ] }