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Spinsters Quotes

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Spinsters Quotes

“I don’t want to relax. I don’t want to … oh, dear Lord.” He had bent his head to her throat, searching for the visible thrum of her pulse. A light, hot shock went through her. “Don’t do that,” she said weakly, but he was insistent, his mouth wickedly soft, and her breath hitched as she felt the brush of his tongue. Her hands shot to his muscle-banked shoulders. “Mr. Rohan, you mustn’t—” “This is how to kiss, Amelia.” He cradled her head in his palms, deftly tilting it to the side. “Noses go here.” Another disorienting brush of his mouth, a wash of sensual heat. “You taste like sugar and tea.” “I already know how to kiss!” “Do you?” His thumb passed over her kiss-heated lips, urging them to part. “Then show me,” he whispered. “Let me in, Amelia.” Never in her life had she thought a man would say something so outrageous to her. And if the words were improper, the gleam in his eyes was positively immolating. “I … I’m a spinster.” She offered the word as if it were a talisman. Everyone knew that rakish gentlemen were supposed to leave spinsters alone. But it appeared no one had told Cam Rohan. A covert smile deepened the corners of his mouth. “That’s not going to keep you safe from me.” She tried to turn away from him, but his hands guided her face back to his. “I can’t seem to leave you alone. In fact, I’m reconsidering my entire policy on spinsters.”

KissesSpinstersCam And Amelia
Book:Mine Till Midnight
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“Was it so very obvious that I was not married? Of course it was. For one thing, I had no husband with me, looking after and indulging me. But there was something else about married women that I noticed, their solid smugness at not having to worry about the course of their future. Married women were set like jelly in a mold, whereas spinsters like me were formless and unpredictable.”

Married WomenSpinstersUnmarried Women
Book:Remarkable Creatures
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“At first reading, these are stories about love and marriage and the conventional heterosexual happily-ever-after. Only at the second does a sneaky doubt perhaps creep in to suggest that maybe marriage is not the best thing that could ever happen to these women. It has been suggested that with these clever layers of meaning, Jane was perhaps even more subversive than we give her credit for. Yes, she was writing for the commercial market. But she was also writing for her female cronies, for Martha Lloyd, Cassandra and Miss Sharp. She glibly provided the happy endings that society expected, but in an off-hand, almost perfunctory fashion. You don’t have to believe in Jane’s happy endings if you don’t want to. I like to think that this is the band of spinsters’ last laugh.”

SubversiveJane AustenSpinsters
Author:Lucy Worsley
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“One night he said abruptly: Stephen won't marry—I don't want her to marry; it would only mean disaster.' And at this Anna broke out in angry protest. Why shouldn't Stephen marry? She wished her to marry. Was he mad? And what did he mean by disaster? No woman was ever complete without marriage—what on earth did he mean by disaster He frowned and refused to answer her question. Stephen, he said, must go up to Oxford. He had set his heart on a good education for the child, who might some day become a fine writer. Marriage wasn't the only career for a woman. Look at Puddle, for instance; she'd been at Oxford—a most admirable, well-balanced, sensible creature. Next year he was going to send Stephen to Oxford. Anna scoffed: 'Yes, indeed, he might well look at Puddle! She was what came of this higher education—a lonely, unfulfilled, middle-aged spinster. Anna didn't want that kind of life for her daughter.”

WomenEducationMarriageGenderLgbtqGender RolesSingle LifeLesbiansSpinstersGender Relationships
Book:The Well Of Loneliness
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“No, what Great Aunt Winifred was suffering from was the persecution every happily single woman suffers: the predictable social condemnation of her independence and childlessness. Dorothy reminded herself of what she'd learned during a university course on feminist history (with a strong Marxist slant): spinsters are a threat to patriarchy.”

SufferingCoursesStrongSocialIndependenceThreatUniversityFeministPatriarchyPersecutionAuntPredictableCondemnationMarxistSingle WomenSpinstersChildlessnessGreat Aunt
Author:Tobsha Learner
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“I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who aren't prepared to occupy a position. I've seen such pitiful cases in the South barely tolerated spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister's husband or brother's wife! stuck away in some little mouse-trap of a room encouraged by one in-law to visit another little birdlike women without any nest eating the crust of humility all their life! Is that the future that we've mapped out for ourselves?”

KnowsWellsLittlesLawLife IsRoomsCasesWifePositionHumilityBrotherHusbandEatingPreparedSouthStuckTrapsMiceNestsIn-lawsPitifulUnmarriedMarried WomenPatronageSpinstersMouse Traps
Book:The Glass Menagerie
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“All sorts of articles and letters appear in the papers about women. Profound questions are raised concerning them. Should they smoke? Should they work? Vote? Marry? Exist? Are not their skirts too short, or their sleeves? Have they a sense of humor, of honor, of direction? Are spinsters superfluous? But how seldom similar inquiries are propounded about men.”

MenShouldHonorPaperLettersVoteProfoundRaisedSmokeSense Of HumorArticlesPapersInquiryToo ShortSleevesSkirtsSuperfluousSpinsters
Author:Rose Macaulay
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“I put in my list all the busy, useful independent spinsters I know, for liberty is a better husband than love to many of us.”

KnowsLibertyHusbandIndependentBusyListsSpinsters
Book:LOUISA MAY ALCOTT Ultimate Collection: 16 Novels & 150+ Short Stories, Plays and Poems (Illustrated): Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Jo's Boys, A Modern Mephistopheles, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, Jack and Jill, Behind a Mask, Lulu's Library, The Abbot's Ghost, A Garland for Girls…
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“Widows are more skillful anglers for husbands than spinsters, and many marry several times. This is a social injustice to spinsters. "One man one woman," is surely as fair a cry as "One man one vote." As there is scarcely one man for each woman, what right has one woman to two, three, or four men in succession? She may reply, "By the right of conquest." But, then, is she not reducing others to unhappy courses or to become old maids?... Society, for the interests of all, should discourage the remarriage of widows.”

MenShouldMayTwoThreeCoursesSocialInterestFourCryHusbandFairsVoteInjusticeUnhappyOne ManConquestReducingDiscouragingSuccessionWidowsMaidsOne WomanSkillfulSocial InjusticeAnglersSpinstersOld MaidsRemarriage
Author:Tennessee Celeste Claflin
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“Which are you? Are you the single woman who is just barely getting by who will become an insignificant spinster one day? Or are you the kind that's more dangerous, leading the lost further into their lostness? Or is your singleness fueled by the power of the Spirit so that you are one who uses it for good, leaving a legacy of lives changed?”

KindUseSpiritLostDangerousChangedOne DayLeavingLegacyLife ChangingInsignificantSinglenessSingle WomenSpinstersLeaving A LegacyBarely Getting By
Author:Dannah Gresh
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“Don't laugh at the spinsters, dear girls, for often very tender, tragic romances are hidden away in the hearts that beat so quietly under the sober gowns, and many silent sacrifices of youth, health, ambition, love itself, make the faded faces beautiful in God's sight. Even the sad, sour sisters should be kindly dealt with, because they have missed the sweetest part of life, if for no other reason.”

IfsShouldHeartReasonBeautifulFacesRomanceGirlWomenLaughingSacrificeYouthAmbitionBeatsSightSilentDearTragicSoberSweetestParts Of LifeFadedSourGownsLittle WomenSpinsters
Book:Little Women
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“TO ALL THE ambulance drivers firewatchers air-raid wardens nurses canteen workers airplane spotters rescue workers mathematicians vicars vergers shopgirls chorus girls librarians debutantes spinsters fishermen retired sailors servants evacuees Shakespearean actors and mystery novelists WHO WON THE WAR.”

WarGirlActorsAirMysteryWorkersServantNovelistsDriversNurseAirplaneRescueMathematicianRetiredLibrarianSailorChorusFishermanAmbulanceSpinstersWardensVicarsCanteenDebutantes
Author:Connie Willis
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“Jem was safe from her, and he would ride away with a song on his lips and a laugh at her expense, forgetful of her, and of his brother, and of God; while she dragged through the years, sullen and bitter, the stain of silence marking her, coming in the end to ridicule as a soured spinster who had been kissed once in her life and could not forget it.”

YearsEndsSongForgetSilenceLaughingBrotherSafeLipsBitterExpensesRidiculeForget ItStainsThrough The YearsJemForgetfulSullenSpinsters
Book:JAMAICA INN
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