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Wife: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
Wives are young men's mistresses; com panions for middle age; and old men's nurses.— BACON — Of Marriage and Single Life.
And while the wicket falls behind Her steps, I thought if I could find A wife I need not blush to show I've little further now to go.— WILLIAM BARNES — Not Far to Go.
She is a winsome wee thing, She is a handsome wee thing, She is a bonny wee thing, This sweet wee wife o' mine.— BURNS — My Wife's a Winsome Wee
Thing. Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life! The evening beam that smiles the clouds away And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray! S.— BYRON — The Bride of Abydos. Canto II. St. 20.
Thy wife is a constellation of virtues; she's the moon, and thou art the man in the moon.— CONGREVE — Love for Love. Act II. Sc. 1.
What is there in the vale of life Half so delightful as a wife, When friendship, love, and peace combine To stamp the marriage-bond divine? น. COWPER-Love Abused. Oh! 'tis a precious thing, when wives are dead, To find such numbers who will serve instead: And in whatever state a man be thrown, 'Tis that precisely they would wish their own.— CRABBE — Tales. The Learned Boy.
The wife was pretty, trifling, childish, weak; She could not think, but would not cease to speak.— CRABBE — Tales. Struggles of Conscience.
You know I met you, Kist you, and prest you close within my arms, With all the tenderness of wifely love.— DRYDEN — Amphitryon. Act III. Sc. 1.
She commandeth her husband, in any equal matter, by constant obeying him.— FULLER — The Holy and Profane States. The Good Wife. Bk. I. Maxim I. Ch. I.
A wife, domestic, good, and pure, Like snail, should keep within her door; But not, like snail, with silver track, Place all her wealth upon her back. W. W. How-Good Wives. He knew whose gentle hand was at the latch Before the door had given her to his eyes. aa.— KEATS — Isabella. St. 3.
But thou dost make the very night itself Brighter than day.— LONGFELLOW — Christus. The Divin
Tragedy. The First Passover. Pt. III. L. 133. Sail forth into the sea of life, O gentle, loving, trusting wife, And safe from all adversity Upon the bosom of that sea Thy comings and thy goings be! For gentleness and love and trust Prevail o'er angry wave and gust; And in the wreck of noble lives Something immortal still survives.— LONGFELLOW — The Building of the Ship. L. 368.
How much the wife is dearer than the bride.— LORD LYTTLETON — An Irregular Ode.
O wretched is the dame, to whom the sound, "Your lord will soon return," no pleasure brings.— MATURIN — Bertram. Act II. Sc. 5.
In the election of a wife, as in A project of war, to err but once is To be undone forever.— THOS. MIDDLETON — Anything for a Quiet Life. Act I. Sc. 1.
Awake, My fairest, my espous'd, my latest found, Heaven's last best gift, my ever new delight!— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. V. L. 17.
For nothing lovelier can be found In woman, than to study household good, And good works in her husband to promote.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. IX. L. 232.
What thou bidd'st Unargu'd I obey, so God ordains; God is thy law, thou mine; to know no more Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. IV. L. 635.
All other goods by fortune's hand are given, A wife is the peculiar gift of heaven.— POPE — January and May. From Chaucer. L. 51.
But what so pure, which envious tongues will spare? Some wicked wits have libell'd all the fair. With matchless impudence they style a wife The dear-bought curse, and lawful plague of life; A bosom-serpent, a domestic evil, A night-invasion and a mid-day-devil. Let not the wife these sland'rous words regard. But curse the bones of ev'ry living bard.— POPE — January and May. L. 43.
She who ne'er answers till a husband cools, Or, if she rules him, never shews she rules; Charms by accepting, by submitting sways, Yet has her humour most when she obeys.— POPE — Moral Essays. Ep. II. L. 261.
A light wife doth make a heavy husband.— Shakespeare — Merchant of Venice. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 130.
As for my wife, I would you had her spirit in such another; The third o' the world is yours; which with a snaffle You may pace easy, but not such a wife.— Shakespeare — Antony and Cleopatra. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 61.
Happy in this, she is not ret so old But she may learn; happier than this, She is not bred so dull but she can learn; Happiest of all is, that her gentle spirit Commits itself to yours to be directed.— Shakespeare — Merchant of Venice. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 162.
I will be master of what is mine own; She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, My household stuff, my field, my barn, My horse, my ox, my ass, my anything; And here she stands, touch her whoever dare.— Shakespeare — Taming of the Shrew. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 231.
Should all despair That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind Would hang themselves.— Shakespeare — Winter's Tale. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 198.
Why, man, she is mine own, And I as rich in having such a jewel As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl, The water nectar and the rocks pure gold.— Shakespeare — Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 168.
My dear, my better half.— SIR PHILIP SIDNEY — Arcadia. Bk. III.
Of earthly goods, the best is a good wife; A bad, the bitterest curse of human life. S. SIMONIDES. Light household duties, ever more inwrought With placid fancies of one trusting heart That lives but in her smile, and turns From life's cold seeming and the busy mart, With tenderness, that heavenward ever yearns To be refreshed where one pure altar burns. Shut out from hence the mockery of life; Thus liveth she content, the meek, fond, trusting wife.— ELIZABETH OAKES SMITH — The Wife.
A love still burning upward, giving light To read those laws, an accent very low In blandishment, but a most silver flow Of subtle-paced counsel in distress, Right to the heart and brain, tho' undescried, Winning its way with extreme gentleness Thro' all the outworks of suspicious pride; A courage to endure and to obey : A hate of gossip parlance and of sway, Crown'd Isabel, thro' all her placid life, The queen of marriage, a most perfect wife.— TENNYSON — Isabel.
The world well tried-thesweetest thing in life Is the unclouded welcome of a wife.— N. P. WILLIS — Lady Jane. Canto II. St. XI.