"Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley

   I finished Frankenstein a few days ago and it quickly became one of my favorites. In addition to the incredible plot, the thing that struck me the most about this book was Shelley's writing style. There were a lot of lines throughout the book that really inspired or resonated with me, and I thought that I'd share here <3 (no spoilers) 

-"My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement; but by some law in my temperature they were turned not towards childish pursuits but to an eager desire to learn, and not to learn all things indiscriminately." (Victor Frankenstein)

-"I was required to exchange chimeras of boundless grandeur for realities of little worth." (Frankenstein)

-"I pursued nature to her hiding-places." (Frankenstein) 

-"...I suddenly left my home, and bending my steps towards the near Alpine valleys, sought in the magnificence, the eternity of such scenes, to forget myself and my ephemeral, because human, sorrows." (Frankenstein)

-"Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it." (The Creature)

-"If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them a hundred and a hundredfold." (The Creature) 

-"...and yet a man is blind to a thousand minute circumstances which call forth a woman's sedulous attention." (Frankenstein) 

-"He pointed out to me the shifting colours of the landscape and the appearance of the sky. 'This is what it is to live,' he cried." (Henry Clerval) 

-"...his (Clerval's) friendship friendship was one of that devoted and wondrous nature that the world-minded teach us to look for only in the imagination." (Frankenstein)

-"I... wished to view again mountains and streams and all the wondrous works with which Nature adorns her chosen dwelling-places." (Frankenstein)

-"Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful." (The Creature)

-"...and like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an external hell." (Frankenstein) 

-"...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." (Frankenstein)

-"Be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes amd firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be." (Frankenstein) 

-"It requires more philosophy than I posses to bear this injustice with patience." (R. Walton)

-"But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil." (The Creature)