How to be Happy Though Married: Being a Handbook to Marriage

"Deceive not thyself by over-expecting happiness in the married state. Look not therein for contentment greater than God will give, or a creature in this world can receive, name...

To be or not to be--married? That is the question that may occur to readers of the last chapter. If so much precaution and preparation are necessary to ensure a harmless, not to...

If there be any _man_--women are seldom anti-matrimonial bigots--who seriously doubts that the _pros_ in favour of marriage more than counterbalance the _cons_, we commend to hi...

"If, as Plutarch adviseth, one must eat _modium salis_, a bushel of salt, with him before he choose his friend, what care should be had in choosing a wife--his second self! How...

"And while thou livest, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain and uncoined constancy; for he perforce must do thee right, because he hath not the gift to woo in other places; for th...

"E'en now, in passing through the garden walks, Upon the ground I saw a fallen nest, Ruined and full of ruin; and over it, Behold, the uncomplaining birds, already Busy in build...

"I well remember the bright assenting laugh which she (Mrs. Carlyle) once responded to some words of mine, when the propriety was being discussed of relaxing the marriage laws....

"If ever one is to pray--if ever one is to feel grave and anxious--if ever one is to shrink from vain show and vain babble, surely it is just on the occasion of two human beings...

The "honeymoon" is defined by Johnson to be "the first month after marriage, when there is nothing but tenderness and pleasure." And certainly it ought to be the happiest month...

The honeymoon is over, and our young couple have exchanged their chrysalis condition for the pleasures and duties of ordinary married life. Let them begin by forming the highest...

"Drive gently over the stones!" This piece of advice, which is frequently given to inexperienced whips, may be suggested metaphorically to the newly-married. On the road upon wh...

"We cannot arrest sunsets nor carve mountains, but we may turn every English home, if we choose, into a picture which shall be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of...

A Scotch minister, preaching against the love of money, had frequently repeated that it was "the root of all evil." Walking home from the church one old person said to another,...

In England _materfamilias_ is always complaining of servant difficulties. Those, however, who have lived in some of our colonies know that the very thought of an English servant...

"If a merchant commenced business without any knowledge of arithmetic and book-keeping, we should exclaim at his folly and look for disastrous consequences. Or if, before studyi...

"Life's song, indeed, would lose its charm, Were there no babies to begin it; A doleful place this world would be, Were there no little people in it."--_John Greenleaf Whittier._

"My friend," said an old Quaker, to a lady who contemplated adopting a child, "I know not how far thou wilt succeed in educating her, but I am quite certain she will educate you...

"There are comparatively very few women not replete with maternal love; and, by the by, take you care if you meet with a girl who '_is not fond of children_,' not to marry her _...

It is an old saying, "Praise the child and you make love to the mother;" and it is a thing that no husband ought to overlook, for if the wife wish her child to be admired by oth...

"Manners are of more importance than laws. Upon these, in a great measure, the laws depend. The law teaches us but here and there, now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe,...

"God wishes us to have sunlight in our homes. He would have in them a tender play of laughter and humour, a pleasant interchange of light and colour and warmth, in word and mirt...

"Something light as air--a look, A word unkind or wrongly taken-- Oh, love, that tempests never shook, A breath, a touch like this hath shaken, And ruder words will soon rush in...

"When souls, that should agree to will the same, To have one common object for their wishes, Look different ways, regardless of each other, Think what a train of wretchedness en...

"I think for a woman to fail to make and keep a happy home, is to be a 'failure' in a truer sense than to have failed to catch a husband."--_Frances Power Cobbe._

A highland horse dealer, who lately effected a sale, was offered a bottle of porter to confess the animal's failings. The bottle was drunk, and he then said the horse had but tw...

"Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words--health, peace, and competence. But Health consists with temperance alone, And Peace, O Virtue, peace is all...

"Thou leanest thy true heart on mine, And bravely bearest up! Aye mingling Love's most precious wine In life's most bitter cup! And evermore the circling hours New gifts of glor...

"He will not separate us, we have been so happy"--these were the last words of Charlotte Bronte when, having become Mrs. Nicholls, and having lived with her husband only nine mo...