WIFE
Addison, Joseph
It very seldom happens that a man is slow enough in assuming the character of a husband, or a woman quick enough in condescending to that of a wife.
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward George
There is one name which I can never utter without a reverence due to the religion which binds earth to heaven—a name cheered, beautified, exalted and hallowed—and that is the name of wife.
Byron, George Gordon Noel
Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life; the evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.
Campbell, Thomas
Without our hopes, without our fears, without the home that plighted love endears, without the smiles from plighted beauty won, oh! what were man?—a world without a sun.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
A woman in a single state may be happy, or may be miserable, but most happy, and most miserable, these are epithets applicable only to the wife.
Fordyce, George
When a young woman behaves to her parents in a manner particularly tender and respectful, from principle as well as nature, there is nothing good and gentle that may not be expected from her in whatever condition she is placed. Of this I am so thoroughly persuaded, that, were I to advise any friend of mine as to his choice of a wife, I know not whether my first counsel would be, "Look out for one distinguished by her attention and sweetness to her parents."
Fuller, Thomas
For a wife take the daughter of a good mother.
First get an absolute conquest over thyself, and then thou wilt easily govern thy wife.
The good wife is none of our dainty dames, who love to appear in a variety of suits every day new; as if a gown, like a stratagem in war, were to be used but once. But our good wife sets up a sail according to the keel of her husband's estate; and, if of high parentage, she doth not so remember what she was by birth, that she forgets what she is by match.
Goldsmith, Oliver
I chose my wife, as she did her wedding-gown, for qualities that would wear well.
Irving, Washington
No man knows what the wife of his bosom is—what a ministering angel she is, until he has gone with her through the fiery trials of this world.
O woman! when the good man of the house may return, when the heat and burden of the day is past, do not let him at such time, when he is weary with toil and jaded by discouragement, find upon his coming that the foot which should hasten to meet him is wandering at a distance, that the soft hand which should wipe the sweat from his brow is knocking at the door of other houses.
Nothing can be more touching than to behold a soft and tender female, who has been all weakness and dependence, and alive to every trivial roughness while treading the prosperous paths of life, suddenly rising in mental force to be the comforter and supporter of her husband under misfortune, and abiding with unshrinking firmness the bitterest blast of adversity.
Jackson, Andrew
Heaven will not be heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there.
Lamartine, Alphonse de
The death of a man's wife is like cutting down an ancient oak that has long shaded the family mansion. Henceforth the glare of the world, with its cares and vicissitudes, falls upon the widower's heart, and there is nothing to break their force, or shield him from the full weight of misfortune. It is as if his right hand were withered; as if one wing of his angel was broken, and every movement that he made brought him to the ground. His eyes are dimmed and glassy, and when the film of death falls over him, he misses those accustomed tones which might have smoothed his passage to the grave.
Luther, Martin
The highest gift and favor of God is a pious, kind, godly, and domestic wife, with whom thou mayest live peaceably, and to whom thou mayest intrust all thy possessions, yea, thy body and thy life.
Lyttleton, Lord
Even in the happiest choice, where favoring heaven has equal love and easy fortune given, think not, the husband gained, that all is done; the prize of happiness must still be won; and, oft, the careless find it to their cost, the lover in the husband may be lost; the graces might, alone, his heart allure; they and the virtues, meeting, must secure.
Massinger, Philip
The sum of all that makes a just man happy consists in the well choosing of his wife.
Michelet, Jules
To be a man in a true sense is, in the first place and above all things to have a wife.
Middleton, Conyers
In the election of a wife, as in a project of war, to err but once is to be undone forever.
Milton, John
Sole partner, and sole part of all my joys, dearer thyself than all.
The wife when danger or dishonor lurks, safest and seemliest by her husband stays, who guards her, or with her the worst endures.
Reade, Charles
A wife is essential to great longevity; she is the receptacle of half a man's cares, and two-thirds of his ill-humor.
Richter, Jean Paul
No man can live piously or die righteously without a wife.
Rogers, Samuel
Across the threshold led, and every tear kissed off as soon as shed, his house she enters, there to be a light shining within when all without is night; a guardian-angel o'er his life presiding, doubling his pleasure, and his cares dividing!
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Her pleasures are in the happiness of her family.
Savage, Richard
A
faithful wife becomes the truest and tenderest friend, the balm of comfort, and the source of joy; through every various turn of life the same.
Shakespeare, William
You are my true and honorable wife, as dear to me, as are the ruddy drops that visit my sad heart.
A light wife doth make a heavy husband.
Hanging and wiving go by destiny.
Why man, she is mine own; and I as rich in having such a jewel, as twenty seas if all their sands were pearl, the water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
Shirley, James
A wife's a man's best piece; who till he marries, wants making up: she is the shrine to which nature doth send us forth on pilgrimage; she is the good man's paradise, and the bad's first step to heaven, a treasure which, who wants, cannot be trusted to posterity, nor pay his own debts; she's a golden sentence writ by our Maker, which the angels may discourse of, only men know how to use, and none but devils violate.
Sidney, Sir Philip
When it shall please God to bring thee to man's estate, use great providence and circumspection in choosing thy wife. For from thence will spring all thy future good or evil, and it is an action of life like unto a stratagem of war, wherein a man can err but once.
My dear, my better half.
Simonides
Of earthly goods, the best is a good wife; a bad, the bitterest curse of human life.
Stretch, L. M.
A good wife makes the cares of the world sit easy, and adds a sweetness to its pleasures: she is a man's best companion in prosperity, and his best if not only friend in adversity; the most careful preserver of his health, and the kindest attendant on his sickness; a faithful adviser in distress, a comforter in affliction, and a discreet manager of all his domestic affairs.
Taylor, Jeremy
A good wife is heaven's last, best gift to man,—his gem of many virtues, his casket of jewels; her voice is sweet music, her smiles his brightest day, her kiss the guardian of his innocence, her arms the pale of his safety, her industry his surest wealth, her economy his safest steward, her lips his faithful counsellors, her bosom the softest pillow of his cares.
Tobin, John
She is adorned amply, that in her husband's eye looks lovely—the truest mirror that an honest wife can see her beauty in.
Webster, Daniel
There is nothing upon this earth that can be compared with the faithful attachment of a wife; no creature who, for the object of her love, is so indomitable, so persevering, so ready to suffer and die. Under the most depressing circumstances, woman's weaknesses become a mighty power; her timidity becomes fearless courage; all her shrinking and sinking passes away; and her spirit acquires the firmness of marble—adamantine firmness—when circumstances drive her to put forth all her energy and the inspiration of her affections.
