Quotes about wife
page 12

Aristotle photo
Edwin Abbott Abbott photo

“Although I had less than a minute for reflection, I felt, by a kind of instinct, that I must conceal my experiences from my Wife.”

Source: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884), PART II: OTHER WORLDS, Chapter 20. How the Sphere Encouraged Me in a Vision
Context: p>Although I had less than a minute for reflection, I felt, by a kind of instinct, that I must conceal my experiences from my Wife. Not that I apprehended, at the moment, any danger from her divulging my secret, but I knew that to any Woman in Flatland the narrative of my adventures must needs be unintelligible. So I endeavoured to reassure her by some story, invented for the occasion, that I had accidentally fallen through the trap-door of the cellar, and had there lain stunned.The Southward attraction in our country is so slight that even to a Woman my tale necessarily appeared extraordinary and well-nigh incredible; but my Wife, whose good sense far exceeds that of the average of her Sex, and who perceived that I was unusually excited, did not argue with me on the subject, but insisted that I was ill and required repose.</p

Michelangelo Antonioni photo

“She isn't my wife, really. We just have some kids.
No. No kids. Sometimes, though, it feels as if we had kids.”

Michelangelo Antonioni (1912–2007) Italian film director and screenwriter

Thomas (David Hemmings) to Jane (Vanessa Redgrave) in Blow-Up (1966)
Context: She isn't my wife, really. We just have some kids.
No. No kids. Sometimes, though, it feels as if we had kids.
She isn't beautiful, she's just easy to live with.
No, she isn't. That's why I don't live with her.

Robert Louis Stevenson photo

“Idleness, which is often becoming and even wise in the bachelor, begins to wear a different aspect when you have a wife to support.”

Virginibus Puerisque, Ch. 2.
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)
Context: Times are changed with him who marries; there are no more by-path meadows, where you may innocently linger, but the road lies long and straight and dusty to the grave. Idleness, which is often becoming and even wise in the bachelor, begins to wear a different aspect when you have a wife to support.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain photo

“My darling wife I am lying mortally wounded the doctors think, but my mind & heart are at peace Christ is my all-sufficient savior. I go to him.”

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1828–1914) Union Army general and Medal of Honor recipient

Letter written to his wife after being wounded. (June 1864), as quoted in In the Hands of Providence : Joshua L. Chamberlain and the American Civil War (2001) by Alice Rains Trulock, p. 215
Context: My darling wife I am lying mortally wounded the doctors think, but my mind & heart are at peace Christ is my all-sufficient savior. I go to him. God bless & keep & comfort you, precious one. You have been a precious wife to me. To know & love you makes life & death beautiful. Cherish the darlings & give my love to all the dear ones. Do not grieve too much for me. We shall all soon meet Live for the children Give my dearest love to Father, Mother & Sallie & John Oh how happy to feel yourself forgiven God bless you evermore precious precious one Ever yours, Lawrence.

Mohamed ElBaradei photo

“I am an Egyptian Muslim, educated in Cairo and New York, and now living in Vienna. My wife and I have spent half our lives in the North, half in the South. And we have experienced first hand the unique nature of the human family and the common values we all share.”

Mohamed ElBaradei (1942) Egyptian law scholar and diplomat, former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Nobel …

Nobel lecture (2005)
Context: I am an Egyptian Muslim, educated in Cairo and New York, and now living in Vienna. My wife and I have spent half our lives in the North, half in the South. And we have experienced first hand the unique nature of the human family and the common values we all share.
Shakespeare speaks of every single member of that family in The Merchant of Venice, when he asks: "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"
And lest we forget:
There is no religion that was founded on intolerance — and no religion that does not value the sanctity of human life.
Judaism asks that we value the beauty and joy of human existence.
Christianity says we should treat our neighbours as we would be treated.
Islam declares that killing one person unjustly is the same as killing all of humanity.
Hinduism recognizes the entire universe as one family.
Buddhism calls on us to cherish the oneness of all creation.
Some would say that it is too idealistic to believe in a society based on tolerance and the sanctity of human life, where borders, nationalities and ideologies are of marginal importance. To those I say, this is not idealism, but rather realism, because history has taught us that war rarely resolves our differences. Force does not heal old wounds; it opens new ones.

Mark W. Clark photo
Robert M. Pirsig photo

“He begins to discard things, encumbrances that he has carried with him all his life. He tells his wife to leave with the children, to consider themselves separated. Fear of loathsomeness and shame disappear when his urine flows not deliberately but naturally on the floor of the room. Fear of pain, the pain of the martyrs is overcome when cigarettes burn not deliberately but naturally down into his fingers until they are extinguished by blisters formed by their own heat. His wife sees his injured hands and the urine on the floor and calls for help.
But before help comes, slowly, imperceptibly at first, the entire consciousness of Phædrus begins to come apart — to dissolve and fade away. Then gradually he no longer wonders what will happen next. He knows what will happen next, and tears flow for his family and for himself and for this world.”

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 30
Context: For three days and three nights, Phædrus stares at the wall of the bedroom, his thoughts moving neither forward nor backward, staying only at the instant. His wife asks if he is sick, and he does not answer. His wife becomes angry, but Phædrus listens without responding. He is aware of what she says but is no longer able to feel any urgency about it. Not only are his thoughts slowing down, but his desires too. And they slow and slow, as if gaining an imponderable mass. So heavy, so tired, but no sleep comes. He feels like a giant, a million miles tall. He feels himself extending into the universe with no limit.
He begins to discard things, encumbrances that he has carried with him all his life. He tells his wife to leave with the children, to consider themselves separated. Fear of loathsomeness and shame disappear when his urine flows not deliberately but naturally on the floor of the room. Fear of pain, the pain of the martyrs is overcome when cigarettes burn not deliberately but naturally down into his fingers until they are extinguished by blisters formed by their own heat. His wife sees his injured hands and the urine on the floor and calls for help.
But before help comes, slowly, imperceptibly at first, the entire consciousness of Phædrus begins to come apart — to dissolve and fade away. Then gradually he no longer wonders what will happen next. He knows what will happen next, and tears flow for his family and for himself and for this world.

“You can’t become a saint by taking dope, stealing your friends’ typewriters, giving girls chancres, not supporting your wife and children, and then reading St. John of the Cross.”

Kenneth Rexroth (1905–1982) American poet, writer, anarchist, academic and conscientious objector

Rothenberg and Antin interview (1958)
Context: You can’t become a saint by taking dope, stealing your friends’ typewriters, giving girls chancres, not supporting your wife and children, and then reading St. John of the Cross. All of that, when it’s happened before, has typified the collapse of civilization … and today the social fabric is falling apart so fast, it makes your head swim.

Henrik Ibsen photo

“But our home's been nothing but a playpen. I've been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was Papa's doll-child.”

Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet

Nora Helmer, Act III
Variant translation: Our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa's doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls. I thought it great fun when you played with me, just as they thought it great fun when I played with them. That is what our marriage has been, Torvald.
A Doll's House (1879)
Context: But our home's been nothing but a playpen. I've been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was Papa's doll-child. And in turn the children have been my dolls. I thought it fun when you played with me, just as they thought it fun when I played with them. That's been our marriage, Torvald.

Benjamin Franklin photo

“There are three faithful friends, an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
Rodney Dangerfield photo
Lana Turner photo
Rodney Dangerfield photo
Rodney Dangerfield photo
Rodney Dangerfield photo
Rodney Dangerfield photo
Cornell Woolrich photo
Vivek Agnihotri photo
Mikhail Gorbachev photo
Toni Morrison photo
Mary McCarthy photo
Philip K. Dick photo
Chris Cornell photo
Alfred von Waldersee photo
I. F. Stone photo
William Logan (author) photo
William Logan (author) photo
William Logan (author) photo
Tommy Robinson photo

“Do you know how many times I have gone into Bedford police station, I have gone into Kempston police station, to say here are comments to kill my family but nothing ever gets done. I have three kids, an innocent wife, my family are scared.”

Tommy Robinson (1982) English right-wing activist

Police probe threats made to EDL founder Tommy Robinson https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-42816348 BBC News (25 January 2018)
2018

John Bright photo

“He…made observations with regard to the Queen, which, in my opinion, no meeting of people in this country, and certainly no meeting of Reformers, ought to have listened to with approbation. (Cheers.) Let it be remembered that there has been no occasion on which any Ministry has proposed an improved representation of the people when the Queen has not given her cordial, unhesitating, and, I believe, hearty assent. (Cheers.) … But Mr. Ayrton referred further to a supposed absorption of the sympathies of the Queen with her late husband to the exclusion of sympathy for and with the people. (Hear, hear.) I am not accustomed to stand up in defence of those who are possessors of crowns. (Hear, hear.) But I could not sit here and hear that observation without a sensation of wonder and of pain. (Loud cheers.) I think there has been by many persons a great injustice done to the Queen in reference to her desolate and widowed position. (Cheers.) And I venture to say this, that a woman, be she the Queen of a great realm or be she the wife of one of your labouring men, who can keep alive in her heart a great sorrow for the lost object of her life and affection, is not at all likely to be wanting in a great and generous sympathy with you.”

John Bright (1811–1889) British Radical and Liberal statesman

Loud and prolonged cheers.
Speech in St James's Hall, Piccadilly, London (4 December 1866), quoted in The Times (5 December 1866), p. 7
1860s

Dave Barry photo
Vālmīki photo
José Mourinho photo

“My wife is in Portugal with the dog. The dog is with my wife so the city of London is safe, the big threat is away.”

José Mourinho (1963) Portuguese association football player and manager

After his Yorkshire Terrier had issues with customs.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/funny_old_game/7004282.stm
Chelsea FC

Louise Brooks photo
John Fante photo
Otto Ohlendorf photo
Totaram Sanadhya photo
F. H. Bradley photo

“Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived.”

F. H. Bradley (1846–1924) British philosopher

It is a pity that this is still the only knowledge of their wives at which some men seem to arrive.
No. 94.
Aphorisms (1930)

John Gay photo
Doris Veillette photo

“The woman, who does not imitate her mother and her grandmother as a mother and a good wife, can only rely on her own scale of values ​​to find a life ideal that is important to her happiness.”

Doris Veillette (1935–2019) Quebec journalist

Chronicle "Interdit aux hommes" (Forbidden to men), by Doris Veillette-Hamel, Journal Le Nouvelliste, March 24, 1973, page 17.
Chronicle "Forbidden to men", 1973

Steven Crowder photo
William Lloyd Garrison photo
John Gay photo

“In the winter on a Sunday afternoon, I can spend six hours in front of the fireplace, just looking at the flames and thinking. In the evening, I’m drunk with beautiful thoughts. My wife says to me, ‘What are you looking at?’ I say, ‘The fire.’ We have to take a step backward.”

Brunello Cucinelli (1953) Italian entrepreneur and philanthropist

Source: 10 Productivity Tips From the King of Cashmere, Brunello Cucinelli https://medium.com/@om/10-productivity-tips-from-the-king-of-cashmere-brunello-cucinelli-79c9cf74d9de Medium, Om Malik, April 27, 2015

Herman Kruyder photo

“I think I am a tough mountaineer who, when he has the top in sight, is bounced off again [by mental break-downs], but some day I will succeed.. .I must do it, there is no other way for me. It is always such a pity that Jo [his wife] is cracked up so quickly, otherwise I didn't mind very much.”

Herman Kruyder (1881–1935) Dutch painter

translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018

(version in original Dutch / origineel citaat van Herman Kruyder uit zijn brief, in het Nederlands:) Ik vind mij een stoere bergbeklimmer die steeds als hij de top in zicht heeft er weer afgestoten wordt, maar eens lukt het.. .Toch moet ik, ik kan niet anders. 't Is zoo jammer dat Jo [zijn vrouw] altijd zo gauw instort, anders vond ik de zaak niet zo heel erg.

Quote of Kruyder in a letter to P.A. Regnault, from Limburg April 1930; as cited in Herman Kruyder 1881 – 1935: gedoemde scheppingen, ed. Mabel Hoogendonk; (ISBN 90-400-9905-7), Waanders, Zwolle 1997, p. 31

both had very frequently their break-downs and went into the mental hospital for some time
dated quotes

Hendrik Willem Mesdag photo

“And you know, if my wife haven't said some forty years ago: do it, let's go to Brussels to study painting, [with a. o. Willem Roelofs ], then I probably would never have left my business [in banking].”

Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831–1915) painter from the Northern Netherlands

translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek

(original Dutch: citaat van Hendrik Willem Mesdag, in het Nederlands:) En zie je, als mijn vrouw zo'n veertig jaar geleden niet gezegd had: doe 't maar, laten we maar gaan naar Brussel om te gaan studeren in schilderen, bij o.a. nl:Willem Roelofs, dan was 'k waarschijnlijk nooit uit mijn zaken getrokken.

Quote of Mesdag; as cited by nl:Marie Joseph Brusse, in his article 'Onder de menschen. Een gouden schilders-bruiloft', in Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant', 11 March, 1906
after 1880

Arnab Goswami photo

“Congress leaders have been intimidating me and threatening me with physical violence. I am deeply grateful that the Supreme Court has noted the violence against me and my wife.”

Arnab Goswami (1973) Indian news anchor

https://www.opindia.com/2020/04/arnab-goswami-grateful-supreme-court-interim-protection-congress-fir/ https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/grateful-to-sc-for-upholding-constitutional-right-to-report-broadcast-arnab-goswami20200424155249/ https://www.newsx.com/national/arnab-goswami-deeply-grateful-to-sc-for-defending-his-freedom-of-expression-says-congress-filed-over-150-firs-to-intimidate-him.html

Robert Graves photo
Francis Bacon photo

“Chaste women are often proud and froward, as presuming upon the merit of their chastity. It is one of the best bonds, both of chastity and obedience, in the wife, if she think her husband wise; which she will never do, if she find him jealous.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Marriage and Single Life

Francis Bacon photo

“A single life doth well with churchmen; for charity will hardly water the ground, where it must first fill a pool. It is indifferent for judges and magistrates; for if they be facile and corrupt, you shall have a servant, five times worse than a wife.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Marriage and Single Life

Brad Garrett photo
David Lynch photo

“When I started meditating, I was filled with anxieties and fears. I felt a sense of depression and anger.
I often took out this anger on my first wife. After I had been meditating for about two weeks, she came to me and said, "What's going on?" I was quiet for a moment. But finally I said, "What do you mean?" And she said, "This anger, where did it go?"”

And I hadn't even realized that it had lifted.
I call that depression and anger the Suffocating Rubber Clown Suit of Negativity. It's suffocating, and that rubber stinks. But once you start meditating and diving within, the clown suit starts to dissolve. You finally realize how putrid was the stink when it starts to go. Then, when it dissolves, you have freedom.
Anger and depression and sorrow are beautiful things in a story, but they are like poison to the filmmaker or artist. They are like a vise grip on creativity. If you're in that grip, you can hardly get out of bed, much less experience the flow of creativity and ideas. You must have clarity to create. You have to be able to catch ideas.
Suffocating Rubber Clown Suit, p. 8
Catching the Big Fish (2006)

William G. Boykin photo
Neal McDonough photo

“God gave me this talent of being an actor, and I’m not going to waste it. That’s just who I am. I love working, and with five kids and a fantastic wife, I want to make sure I’m taking care of everyone. That’s what my dad did, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Neal McDonough (1966) American actor

Neal McDonough Admits Putting God And His Family First Has Been ‘Hard’ On His Career (Exclusive) https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/neal-mcdonough-admits-putting-god-and-his-family-first-was-hard-on-his-career-exclusive/ (January 5, 2019)

Harry Graham photo

“That morning, when my wife eloped
With James, our chauffeur, how I moped!
What tragedies in life there are!
I'm dashed if I can start the car.”

Harry Graham (1874–1936) British writer

Tragedy
Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes (1899)

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Marcelo H. del Pilar photo
Amir Khusrow photo

“Everyone threw himself, with his wife and children, upon the flames and departed to hell.”

Amir Khusrow (1253–1325) Indian poet, writer, musician and scholar

Khazainu’l-Futuh
Source: quoted in (Oxford in India readings, Themes in Indian history.) Richard Maxwell Eaton - India's Islamic traditions, 711-1750-Oxford University Press (2003) 38.

“There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours. I'm fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred”

Halyna Hutchins (1979–2021) Ukrainian-American cinematographer and investigative journalist

Source: 22 October 2021 https://twitter.com/AlecBaldwin/status/1451572461787439106 by Alec Baldwin the day after Alec killed her with a firearm

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor photo
Winston S. Churchill photo

“My ability to persuade my wife to marry me [was] quite my most brilliant achievement ... Of course, it would have been impossible for any ordinary man to have got through what I had to go through in peace and war without the devoted aid of what we call, in England, one's better half.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Post-war years (1945–1955)
Source: As cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 511, ISBN 1586489577

Burt Lancaster photo

“My former wife is a truly wonderful person.”

Burt Lancaster (1913–1994) American actor and producer

other quotes

Edgar Guest photo
Dmitry Yazov photo

“My real friend was my first wife. I could share everything with her without exception. That's how it came together that she became both a wife and a friend. A friend in the full sense of the word happens once in a lifetime or does not happen at all.”

Dmitry Yazov (1924–2020) Soviet minister of defence

"Дмитрий Язов рассказал "РГ" о жизни маршала на пенсии" https://rg.ru/2013/12/05/marshal.html (4 December 2013)

Bill Maher photo