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Elizabeth Montagu

  • Not to be miserable is all some people are capable of.

    • Elizabeth Montagu,
    • 1736, in Vicesimus Knox, ed., Elegant Epistles, vol. 2 ()
  • I endeavor to drink deep of philosophy, and to be wise when I cannot be merry, easy when I cannot be glad, content with what cannot be mended, and patient where there is no redress. The mighty can do no more, and the wise seldom do as much. ... I am resolved to make the best of all circumstances around me, that this short life may not be half lost in pains ... Between the periods of birth and burial, I would fain insert a little happiness, a little pleasure, a little peace: to-day is ours, yesterday is past, and to-morrow may never come.

    • Elizabeth Montagu,
    • 1738, in Vicesimus Knox, ed., Elegant Epistles, vol. 2 ()
  • It is very unreasonable of people to expect one should be at home, because one is in the house. Of all privileges, that of invisibility is the most valuable.

    • Elizabeth Montagu,
    • 1740, in Vicesimus Knox, ed., Elegant Epistles, vol. 2 ()
  • They have sent me some chicken, but, alas! can one eat one's acquaintance! these inoffensive companions of my retirement, can I devour them! How often have I lately admired the provident care and the maternal affection of a hen, and shall I eat her hopeful son or fair daughter! Sure I should then be an unworthy member of the chicken society. I find myself reduced to a vegetable diet, not as a Pythagorean, for fear of removing the soul of a friend, but to avoid destroying the body of an acquaintance. There is not a sheep, a calf, a lamb, a goose, a hen, or a turkey in the neighourhood, with which I am not intimately acquainted.

    • Elizabeth Montagu,
    • 1740, in Vicesimus Knox, ed., Elegant Epistles, vol. 2 ()
  • The outrages of the powerful, the insolence of the rich, scorn of the proud, and malice of the uncharitable, all beating against the broken spirit of the unfortunate.

    • Elizabeth Montagu,
    • 1741, in Vicesimus Knox, ed., Elegant Epistles, vol. 2 ()
  • Among many reasons for being stupid it may be urged, it is being like other people, and living like one's neighbours, and indeed without it, it may be difficult to love some neighbours as oneself: now seeing the necessity of being dull, you won't, I hope, take it amiss that you find me so ...

    • Elizabeth Montagu,
    • 1741, in Vicesimus Knox, ed., Elegant Epistles, vol. 2 ()
  • ... the father was, till this parliament, a senator, a man of few words, but less meaning ...

    • Elizabeth Montagu,
    • 1741, in Vicesimus Knox, ed., Elegant Epistles, vol. 2 ()
  • ... it is more to my personal happiness and advantage to indulge the love and admiration of excellence, than to cherish a secret envy of it.

    • Elizabeth Montagu,
    • letter (1774), in Anna Letitia Le Breton, Memoir of Mrs. Barbauld ()
  • I always wish to find great virtues where there are great talents, and to love what I admire ...

    • Elizabeth Montagu,
    • letter (1774), in Anna Letitia Le Breton, Memoir of Mrs. Barbauld ()
  • The muses crown virtue when fortune refuses to do it.

    • Elizabeth Montagu,
    • letter 1774, in Anna Letitia Le Breton, Memoir of Mrs. Barbauld ()

Elizabeth Montagu, English essayist

(1720 - 1800)