Young widows still bide their time. [ H. W. Shaw ]

She is neither maid, wife nor widow. [ Proverb ]

Heaven, the widow's champion and defence. [ William Shakespeare ]

Marry a widow before she leaves mourning. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

Why are those tears? why droops your head
Is then your other husband dead?
Or does a worse disgrace betide?
Hath no one since his death applied? [ Gay ]

May widows wed as often as they can,
And ever for the better change their man;
And some devouring plague pursue their lives,
Who will not well be governed by their wives. [ Dryden ]

Thus, day by day, and month by month, we passed;
It pleased the Lord to take my spouse at last.
I tore my gown, I soiled my locks with dust.
And beat my breasts - as wretched widows must:
Before my face my handkerchief I spread,
To hide the flood of tears I did - not shed. [ Pope ]

One can with dignity be wife and widow but once. [ Joubert ]

Never marry a widow, unless her first man was hanged. [ Proverb ]

He that woos a maid must come seldom in her sight,
But he that woos a widow, must woo her day and night. [ Proverb ]

Widows, like ripe fruit, drop easily from their perch. [ Bruyere ]

When the devil is dead, there is a widow for Humphrey. [ Proverb ]

Take heed of a person marked, and a widow thrice married. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

The rich widow cries with one eye, and laughs with the other. [ Proverb ]

Love makes us thin. If a codfish were a widow, she would become fat. [ Provencal Proverb ]

A good season for courtship is, when the widow returns from the funeral. [ Proverb ]

A widow is like a frigate of which the first captain has been shipwrecked. [ A. Karr ]

The tears of a young widow lose their bitterness when wiped by the hands of love.

Handsome widows, after a twelvemonth, enjoy a latitude and longitude without limit. [ Balzac ]

The past and future are veiled; but the past wears the widow's veil, the future, the virgin's. [ Richter ]

It is not easy to be a widow: one must reassume all the modesty of girlhood, without being allowed to even feign its ignorance. [ Mme. de Girardin ]

The widow who has been bereft of her children may seem in after years no whit less placid, no whit less serenely gladsome; nay, more gladsome than the woman whose blessings are still round her. I am amazed to see how wounds heal. [ Charles Buxton ]

If thy mother be a widow, give her double honor, who now acts the part of a double parent; remember her nine month's burden, and her tenth month's travel; forget not her indulgence, when thou didst hang upon her tender breast; call to mind her prayers for thee before thou earnest into the world; and her cares for thee when thou wert come into the world; remember her secret groans, her affectionate tears, her broken slumbers, her daily fears, her nightly frights; relieve her wants, cover her imperfections, comfort her age, and the widow's husband will be the orphan's father. [ F. Quarles ]