I declare I would rather be a kitten and cry, 'Mew!' than live as I see many of my female acquaintances do, tearing each other's characters to pieces, and wearing out their lives in vanity and vexation of spirit.
Interpretation
Valuing authenticity and emotional expression over competition and negativity among women.
In this quote, Jane Welsh Carlyle emphasizes the importance of being true to one's emotions rather than engaging in harmful behaviors such as gossiping or competing against each other. She highlights the detrimental effects of vanity and social comparison on women's lives, advocating for a more supportive and genuine approach to relationships.
In practice
This quote can be shared at women's empowerment events to encourage positive relationships.
Does not a man physically tremble under the mere look of a wild beast or fellow-man that is stronger than himself? Does not a woman redden all over when she feels her lover's eyes on her? How then should one doubt the mysterious power of one individual over another?
How many precious things do we not already possess which others have not - have hardly an idea of! Let us enjoy these, then, and bless God that we are permitted to enjoy them, rather than importune His goodness with vain longings for more.
The surest way to get a thing in this life is to be prepared for doing without it, to the exclusion even of hope.
One feels as if it could never, never be less. And yet all griefs, when there is no bitterness in them, are soothed down by time.
But what are friends? What is a husband, even, compared with one's Mother? Of her love, one is always so sure! It is the only love that nothing - not even misconduct on our part - can take away from us.
Never does one feel oneself so utterly helpless as in trying to speak comfort for great bereavement.
She's the sort of woman who lives for others - you can tell the others by their hunted expression.
Craving, not having, is the mother of a reckless giving of oneself.
Being LGBT does not make you less human.
The compelled mother loves her child as the caged bird sings. The song does not justify the cage nor the love the enforcement.
I always try to remain aware that what affects others affects me, too.
Trust is like the air we breathe--when it's present, nobody really notices; when it's absent, everybody notices.
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