Source identified1
Image design Botanical Sage
Read & copy
“After all, life is short, and the great thing is to do for others.”
Meaning & context
Mary tries to orient a difficult personal decision toward usefulness and service to others, revealing both her moral seriousness and the pressures shaping her choice.
Source details
The Minister's Wooing, represented by Project Gutenberg #47958. Mary Scudder says the line while discussing marriage, duty and usefulness with her mother. The surrounding scene shows real emotional conflict, so the quotation is not presented as a blanket instruction to suppress one’s own needs for others.