Literary Birthday – 2 October – Elizabeth Montagu
Elizabeth Montagu was born on 2 October 1718 and died on 25 August 1800.
Elizabeth Montagu Quotes
- I endeavour to be wise when I cannot be merry, easy when I cannot be glad, content with what cannot be mended and patient when there be no redress.
- I never invite idiots to my house.
- Wit in women is apt to have bad consequences; like a sword without a scabbard, it wounds the wearer and provokes assailants.
- Any wife will save you from purgatory, and a diligent one will secure heaven to you.
- Few people know anything of the English history but what they learn from Shakespeare; for our story is rather a tissue of personal adventures and catastrophes than a series of political events.
Elizabeth Montagu was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, literary critic, and writer. She helped organise and lead the bluestocking society, a group of English women who organized conversation evenings to find a more worthy pastime than card playing. She made her house in London’s Mayfair the social centre of intellectual society, regularly entertaining such luminaries as Lord Lyttelton, Horace Walpole, Samuel Johnson, and Sir Joshua Reynolds. She is the author of An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare
Source for Image: Allan Ramsay(Life time: (1713-1784) ), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
by Amanda Patterson
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