Merle Shain Quotations

Perhaps the old view of 'Me breadwinner, you hausfrau' worked for our grandparents, when people obligingly popped off before boring each other to death, but it won't work any longer because we are living too long and divorce is needed today to do what death acomplished more economically before.

Some men are more perfect than others.

Feelings take you into uncharted territory from time to time it's true, but you almost always benefit from the journey one way or the other. We tend to think of the rational as a higher order, but it is the emotional that marks our lives.

One can't run in a park without a dog or make angels in the snow without a child and there are things one can't do without a lover, so the loss of the lover is like an amputation and the patient goes into shock.

It can be much harder to be on the receiving end of a transaction than to be the one who gets to give. In fact, being given to can mean being taken from. There is a very strong connection between pride and giving, and those who do the giving get to feel that they are worthy, while those who are given to often feel that they are not.

But who would rush at a benighted man, and give him two black eyes for being blind?

Cynicism is a form of cowardice, a failure of courage to hope.

You can tell a lot about what a man lacks by watching what he is cynical about, and many of us are cynical about love.

when you put something good into the world, something good comes back to you.

you have to be very careful when you give to others that you don't tell them how great you are rather than how much you value them.