Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by such slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity or ruin.
 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818). copy citation

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Author Mary Shelley
Source Frankenstein
Topic prosperity ruin
Date 1818
Language English
Reference
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Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/84/84-h/84-h.htm

Context

“By one of those caprices of the mind which we are perhaps most subject to in early youth, I at once gave up my former occupations, set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation, and entertained the greatest disdain for a would-be science which could never even step within the threshold of real knowledge. In this mood of mind I betook myself to the mathematics and the branches of study appertaining to that science as being built upon secure foundations, and so worthy of my consideration.
Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by such slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity or ruin. When I look back, it seems to me as if this almost miraculous change of inclination and will was the immediate suggestion of the guardian angel of my life—the last effort made by the spirit of preservation to avert the storm that was even then hanging in the stars and ready to envelop me.” source

Meaning and analysis

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