Whatever you say, dear

Autnor J. M. Barrie (Peter Pan) was born on this day in 1860.

"Every man that is high up," Barrie wrote, "likes to think that he has done it all by himself; and the wife smiles, and lets it go at that."

We don't want to be alone

September 23: Actor Mickey Rooney was born Sept. 23, 1920. He is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest career of any actor ever. He was also married eight times.

"The dread of loneliness is greater than the fear of bondage, so we get married." -- Cyril Connolly.



September 24: Author F. Scott Fitzgerald was born Sep. 24, 1896. He wrote:

"It is in the thirties that we want friends. In the forties we know they won't save us any more than love did."

A separate peace

Lord (Phillip Stanhope, 4th Earl of) Chesterfield, British statesman and wit, was born on this day in 1794. He wrote:

"The only real and lasting peace between a man and his wife is doubtless a separation."

Sometimes a beast with two backs

English novelist Henry Fielding was born on this day in 1707. Fielding wrote in his novel Tom Jones of:

"That monstrous animal a husband and wife."

Fielding himself married Charlotte Cradock in 1834. She was the model for Sophia Western, the heroine of Tom Jones, written in 1749.

Delighted you're getting married

Samuel Pepys, English diarist, was born on this day in 1633.

"Strange to say what delight we married people," Pepys wrote, "have to see these poor fools decoyed into our condition."

Be kind to yourself - don't get married

Robert Louis Stevenson (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) was born on this day in 1850.

"In marriage, a man becomes slack and selfish," Stevenson wrote, "and undergoes a fatty degeneration of his moral being."

Did you know that today is World Kindness Day? Let's be nice to one another. Keep in mind Stevenson's words: "Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their mediocrity."

(Read about Robert Louis Stevenson's bequeathal to a young woman, at Last Words. Visit farewells.blogspot.com.)