Better be happy old maids than unhappy wives, and teach your girls to be contented with the home you have, and the friends you keep, and the duties that lie nearest; make this home happy, so that you may be fit for homes of your own, if ever they come, and contented here if they are not.
Marmee upends the marriage-or-bust script. Juxtaposition prizes happiness and goodness over show. Parallelism makes the counsel portable. It blesses the single path without scorning marriage. In the story, it shields the girls from Vanity Fair illusions. Readers hear a surprisingly modern dignity. Present faithfulness becomes future fitness.