The thing to remember about fathers is, they're men. A girl has to keep it in mind: They are dragon seekers, bent on improbable rescues. Scratch any father, you find someone chock - full of qualms and romantic terrors, believing change is a threat - like your first shoes with heels on, like your first bicycle I took such months to get.

There is satisfaction in seeing one's household prosper; in being both bountiful and provident.

Compromise, if not the spice of life, is its solidity. It is what makes nations great and marriages happy

Getting along with men isn't what's truly important. The vital knowledge is how to get along with one man.

Oh, princes thrive on caviar, the poor on whey and curds, / And politicians, I infer, must eat their windy words. / It's crusts that feed the virtuous, it's cake that comforts sinners, / But writers live on bread and praise at Literary Dinners.

Words can sting like anything, but silence breaks the heart.

I sing Connecticut, her charms / Of rivers, orchards, blossoming ridges. / I sing her gardens, fences, farms, / Spiders and midges.