Maid Quotes
More Maid Quotes
Being an old maid is like death by drowning, a really delightful sensation after you cease to struggle. But weel wat I they coudna bring Waur sounds frae hell.
Edna Ferber— 1772 'To the Tron-Kirk Bell', stanza1.
It is natural that people do not want to be involved with us too much. There is no problem down to the smallest egotistical longing which the Gestapo cannot solve. Regarded in this way we are, if a joke is permitted, looked upon as a cross between a general maid and the dustbin of the Reich.
reinhard heydrich— To his officers on German Police Day (February, 1941), as quoted in Gestapo : Instrument of Tyranny (1956) by Edward Crankshaw, p. 103
Many of the Bible characters fell just in the things in which they were thought to be strongest. Moses failed in his humility, Abraham in his faith, Elijah in his courage, for one woman scared him away to that juniper-tree; and Peter, whose strong point was boldness, was so frightened by a maid, as to deny his Lord.
dwight l. moody— P. 532. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth.
jesus christ— The Gospel of Matthew 9:24 (KJV), said about a girl thought to be dead.
Beheld the duteous son, the sire decayed, The modest matron, and the blushing maid, Forc'd from their homes, a melancholy train, To traverse climes beyond the Western main.
Oliver Goldsmith— Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller (1764), line 407.
Only a man harrowing clods In a slow silent walk With an old horse that stumbles and nods Half asleep as they stalk. Only thin smoke without flame From the heaps of couch-grass; Yet this will go onward the same Though Dynasties pass. Yonder a maid and her wight Come whispering by: War's annals will cloud into night Ere their story die.
thomas hardy— In Time of 'The Breaking Of Nations' (1915), lines 1-12, from Moments of Vision (1917); the title derives from lines of Jeremiah 51:20 Thou art my battle ax and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations."
Might I but through my prison once a day Behold this maid: all corners else o' the earth Let liberty make use of; space enough Have I in such a prison.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, The Tempest (c. 1610-1612), I:2, Ferdinand
Only a man harrowing clods In a slow silent walk With an old horse that stumbles and nods Half asleep as they stalk. Only thin smoke without flame From the heaps of couch-grass; Yet this will go onward the same Though Dynasties pass. Yonder a maid and her wight Come whispering by: War's annals will cloud into night Ere their story die.
— Thomas Hardy, in "In Time of 'The Breaking Of Nations'" (1915), from Moments of Vision (1917)
I care not for these ladies, That must be wooed and prayed; Give me kind Amaryllis, The wanton country maid. Nature art disdaineth; Her beauty is her own.
thomas campion— Thomas Campion, I Care Not for These Ladies (1601), reported in Arthur Henry Bullen, More lyrics from the song-books of the Elizabethan Age (1888), p. 48.
How, like a moth, the simple maid Still plays around the flame!
john gay— 1728 The Beggar's Opera, act1, sc.4, air 4.
War has three handmaidens ever waiting on her, Fire, Blood, and Famine, and I have chosen the meekest maid of the three.
— 1418 Comment during the English army's siege of Rouen. Quoted in J R Green A Short History of the English People, vol.1 (1915), ch.5, section 6.
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do noble things, do not dream them, all day long: And so make life, death, and that vast for-ever One grand, sweet song.
Charles Kingsley— 1858 'A Farewell'.
But ’neath yon crimson treeLover to listening maid might breathe his flame,Nor mark, within its roseate canopy,Her blush of maiden shame.
william cullen bryant— Autumn Woods. Reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Can it be that chance has made me one of those women so immersed in one man that, whether they are barren or not, they carry with them to the grave the shrivelled innocence of an old maid?
colette— Sido (1929)
The maid glanced at her employer. "Oh, you have heard of me," she said. "I am glad that he speaks of me. I would not like to think that nobody speaks of me." "No," said Mma Ramotswe. "It is better to be spoken of than not to be spoken of. Except sometimes, that is."
alexander mccall smith— Tears of the Giraffe, chapter 1
If you cannot be great, be willing to serve God in that which is small. If you cannot do great things for Him, cheerfully do little ones. If you cannot be an Aaron to serve at the altar, or a Moses to guide the tribes, consent to be "a little maid" to Xaaman the Syrian, for the honor of God's prophets, or a little child, for Christ's sake, to be set by Him in the midst of the people, as an illustration of the sweetness of humility.
Samuel Francis Smith— Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 123.
The sweetest garland to the sweetest maid.
thomas tickell— To a Lady with a Present of Flowers.
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do noble things, not dream them, all day long: And so make life, death, and that vast for-ever One grand, sweet song.
Charles Kingsley— A Farewell (1856), st. 2,
There be triple ways to take, of the eagle or the snake,
Or the way of a man with a maid;
But the fairest way to me is a ship's upon the sea
In the heel of the North-East Trade.
— The Long Trail, Stanza 5.
Good housewives all the winter's rage despise, Defended by the riding-hood's disguise; Or, underneath the umbrella's oily shade, Safe through the wet on clinking pattens tread, Let Persian dames the umbrella's ribs display, To guard their beauties from the sunny ray; Or sweating slaves support the shady load, When eastern monarchs show their state abroad; Britain in winter only knows its aid, To guard from chilling showers the walking maid.
john gay— John Gay, Trivia, Book I, line 209.
The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.
— Proverbs, XXX. 19. (Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations)
Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid, Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid.
Alexander Pope— Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard (1717), line 51.
Oh, why should vows so fondly made, Be broken ere the morrow, To one who loves as never maid Loved in this world of sorrow?
james hogg— James Hogg, The Broken Heart (1829).
The fire-eyed maid of smoky war All hot and bleeding will we offer them.
— Act IV, scene 1, line 114.
Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
— William Blake, in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790 - 1793).
Or merry swains, who quaff the nut-brown ale, And sing enamour'd of the nut-brown maid.
james beattie— James Beattie, The Minstrel (1771), Book I, Stanza 44.
