Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Quotes

Happiness must be cultivated. It is like character. It is not a thing to be safely let alone for a moment or it will run to weeds.

The great law of denial belongs to the powerful forces of life whether the case be one of coolish baked beans or an unrequited affection.

What an immense power over the life is the power of possessing distinct aims. The voice the dress the look the very motions of a person define and alter when he or she begins to live for a reason.

My wife and I said good-bye the next morning in a little sheltered place among the lumber on the wharf; she was one of your women who never like to do their crying before folks.She climbed on the pile of lumber and sat down, a little flushed and quivery, to watch us off. I remember seeing her there with the baby till we were well down the channel. I remember noticing the bay as it grew cleaner, and thinking that I would break off swearing; and I remember cursing Bob Smart like a pirate within an hour.("Kentucky's Ghost")

They don't take the Bible as a general thing, sailors don't; though I will say that I never saw the man at sea who didn't give it the credit of being an uncommon good yarn.("Kentucky's Ghost")

Success for a woman means absolute surrender, in whatever direction. Whether she paints a picture, or loves a man, there is no division of labor possible in her economy. To the attainment of any end worth living for, a symmetrical sacrifice of her nature is compulsory upon her.