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 good 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.—Fuller.
All other goods by fortune's hand are given,
A wife is the peculiar gift of heaven.
—Pope.
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 counselors, her bosom the softest pillow of his care.—Jeremy Taylor.
She is not made to be the admiration of everybody, but the happiness of one.—Burke.
Nothing can be more touching than to behold a soft and tender female, who had 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.—Washington Irving.
Thy wife is a constellation of virtues, she's the moon, and thou art the man in the moon.—Congreve.
For nothing lovelier can be found
In woman, than to study household good,
And good works in her husband to promote.
—Milton.
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?
—Cowper.
O woman! thou knowest the hour when the goodman of the house will return, when the heat and burden of the day are past; do not let him at such time, when he is weary with toil and jaded with discouragement, find upon his coming to his habitation 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.—Washington Irving.
Wisdom.—It is more easy to be wise for others than for ourselves.—La Rochefoucauld.