There is something inscrutably delightful about a girl's way of thinking one thing and doing another. Perversity, thy name is maidenhood; and maidenhood, thy name is delicious inconsequence. Maurice Thompson. Girlhood. An exquisite incompleteness, blossom foreshadowing fruit; A sketch faint in its beauty, with promise of future worth; A plant with some leaves unfolded, and the rest asleep at its root, To deck with their future sweetness the fairest thing on the earth. Womanhood, wifehood, motherhood-each a possible thing, Dimly seen through the silence that lies between then and now; Something of each and all has woven a magic ring, Linking the three together in glory on girlhood's brow. Anonymous. "But a man's a man, not a post or a holy angel; us wouldn't hear such a deal about angels' tempers, either, if they'd got to face all us have." Eden Phillpotts. A fool and a wise man are alike both in the starting-place-their birth, and at the post-their death; only they differ in the race of their lives. Thomas Fuller. What tho' on hamely fare we dine, For a' that and a' that Their tinsel show, and a' that; The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor, Is king o' men for a' that. Robert Burns. The thing which impresses one most and fills one with the greatest respect for man is the courage with which he faces life. Day after day the working man in all classes of society, on whom a family depends, faces life far too often with the trials intensified by fear that the strength which means bread may give out. Sarah Grand. Among our industrial and frugal forefathers it was a maxim that a young woman should not be married until she had spun herself a set of body, bed, and table linen. From this custom all unmarried women were termed "Spinsters," an appellation they still retain in all legal proceedings. Selected. There is no use in saying that any particular girl is a spinster from necessity rather than choice. One has but to look at the peculiar specimens of womankind who have married to be certain that there is no one on the wide earth who could not do so if she chose. Myrtle Reed. A woman with fair opportunities and without an absolute hump may marry whom she likes. William Makepeace Thackeray. Here lies Anne Mann! She lived an Epitaph at Bath Abbey. An unmarried man is but half of a perfect being, and it requires the other half to make things right; and it cannot be expected that in this imperfect state he can keep the straight path of rectitude any more than a boat with one oar or a bird with one wing can keep a straight course. Voltaire. He that said it was not good for man to be alone, placed the celibate amongst the inferior states of perfection. Boyle. The men who refrain from marriage because they doubt their fitness for it, either on financial or philosophic grounds, would be likely, if married, to make the best husbands. J. H. Browne. I can fancy nothing more cruel after a long, easy life of bachelorhood than to have to sit day after day with a dull, handsome woman opposite. William Makepeace Thackeray. Is the single man therefore blessed? No! Shakespeare. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,-they are only pos sible for the bachelor. Winston Churchill. One word can charm all wrongs away- Oliver Wendell Holmes. The girl with the curly hair and the dimples, and the genius for apple-duff may make a very good wife; but these points will not be a vital factor in her success. Neither will a great fortune or superior social position of itself make life with her for fifty years ideal. Lavinia Hart. Oh, wretched is the dame to whom the sound "Your lord will soon return," no pleasure brings! Charles Maturin. I tell you the women who make fervent wives, And sweet, tender mothers, had Fate been less fair, Are the women who might have abandoned their lives To the madness that springs from and ends in despair, As the fire on the hearth which sheds brightness around, Neglected, may level the walls to the ground. Ella Wheeler Wilcox. |