But with all my responsibilities these days I thought that a wife would be quite suitable. And save me paying wages.

I really believe that if I were not a writer, not a creator, not an experimenter, I might have been a very faithful wife.

Had your mother not been so well-organized, so simple, so virtuous and so resourceful, I would not have been what I am today.

Gortokai, you have done so much for my old parents, we owe it to you to give you a wife. If I had a husband with money.

why should any independent, intelligent female choose to subject herself to the whims and tyrannies of a husband? I assure you, I have yet to meet a man as sensible as myself!

Choose a wife who is of character, because that one is good who in the end is more respected. (p. 60)

a woman's happiest kingdom is home, her highest honor the art of ruling it not as a queen, but as a wise wife and mother.

Do you think your Mother and I should have liv'd comfortably so long together, if ever we had been married?

I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being.

Well. I’m not a poet, I’m just a
woman. And as a woman I have no way
to make money, not enough to earn a
living and support my family.
Even if I had my own money, which I
don’t, it would belong to my
husband the minute we were married.
If we had children they would
belong to him not me. They would be
his property. So don’t sit there
and tell me that marriage isn’t an
economic proposition, because it
is. It may not be for you but it
most certainly is for me.

I have paid my dues to Baltimore. I feel I should be regarded not only as (a) wife but as a woman who has used her influence and affluence to better the community in which she lives.

I have often thought that i am the most clever woman that ever lived, and others cannot compare with me.... Although I have heard much about Queen Victoria...I don't think her life was half so interesting and eventful as mine.... she had... really nothing to say about the policy of the country. Now look at me. I have 400,000,000 people dependent on my judgement.

There is a Polish countess here, who likes me much. She has been very handsome, still is, in the style of the full-blown rose. She is a widow, very rich, one of the emancipated women, naturally vivacious, and with talent. This woman envies me; she says, "How happy you are; so free, so serene, so attractive, so self-possessed!" I say not a word, but I do not look on myself as particularly enviable. A little money would have made me much more so; a little money would have enabled me to come here long ago, and find those that belong to me, or at least try my experiments; then my health would never have sunk, nor the best years of my life been wasted in useless friction. Had I money now, — could I only remain, take a faithful servant, and live alone, and still see those I love when it is best, that would suit me. It seems to me, very soon I shall be calmed, and begin to enjoy.

I really believe that if I were not a writer, not a creator, not an experimenter, I might have been a very faithful wife. I think highly of faithfulness. But my temperament belongs to the writer, not to the woman