"A husband's mother and his wife had generally better be visitors than inmates"
- Samuel Richardson
About this Quote
In this quote, author Samuel Richardson is recommending that it is better for a husband's mom and partner to have a more distant relationship instead of living together as family members. He believes that when the two women are just visitors in each other's lives, there is less opportunity for conflict and tension to emerge. By utilizing the word "prisoners," Richardson is indicating that cohabiting can result in a sense of jail time or confinement, which can strain the relationship. Therefore, he is advocating for a more cordial and respectful dynamic between a partner's mother and spouse, instead of a close and potentially troublesome one.
"Children that are raised in a home with a married mother and father consistently do better in every measure of well-being than their peers who come from divorced or step-parent, single-parent, cohabiting homes"
"A mother should give her children a superabundance of enthusiasm; that after they have lost all they are sure to lose on mixing with the world, enough may still remain to prompt fated support them through great actions"
