The road to success is filled with women pushing their husbands along.
—Thomas Dewar, 1st Baron Dewar (1864–1930) Scottish Businessperson
To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
I take my wife everywhere I go. She always finds her way back.
—Henny Youngman (1906–98) Anglo-American Comedian, Violinist
If you want to know about a man you can find out an awful lot by looking at who he married.
—Kirk Douglas (1916–2020) American Actor, Producer
Variability is one of the virtues of a woman. It avoids the crude requirement of polygamy. So long as you have one good wife you are sure to have a spiritual harem.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
When a man opens the car door for his wife, it’s either a new car or a new wife.
—Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921–2021) Consort of Queen Elizabeth II
When I think of a merry, happy, free young girl—and look at the ailing, aching state a young wife generally is doomed to—which you can’t deny is the penalty of marriage.
—Queen Victoria (1819–1901) British Royal
He’s a fool that marries, but he’s a greater that does not marry a fool; what is wit in a wife good for, but to make a man a cuckold?
—William Wycherley (c.1640–1716) English Dramatist
I told my wife that a husband is like a fine wine; he gets better with age. The next day, she locked me in the cellar.
—Unknown
In that second it dawned on me that I had been living here for eight years with a strange man and had borne him three children.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
Every mother generally hopes that her daughter will snag a better husband than she managed to do… but she’s certain that her boy will never get as great a wife as his father did.
—Unknown
In your power, all the same. Subject to your will and your demands. No longer free! No! That’s a thought I’ll never endure! Never.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
A woman asking “Am I good? Am I satisfied?” is extremely selfish. The less women fuss about themselves, the less they talk to other women, the more they try to please their husbands, the happier the marriage is going to be.
—Barbara Cartland (1901–2000) English Popular Romantic Novelist
A man would prefer to come home to an unmade bed and a happy woman than to a neatly made bed and an angry woman.
—Marlene Dietrich (1901–92) German-American Film Actress, Cabaret Performer
Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived. It is a pity that this is still the only knowledge of their wives at which some men seem to arrive.
—F. H. Bradley (1846–1924 ) British Idealist Philosopher
A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table than when his wife talks Greek.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
London is full of women who trust their husbands. One can always recognize them. They look so thoroughly unhappy.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
He will hold thee, when his passion shall have spent its novel force, something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
The true index of a man’s character is the health of his wife.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
In America a woman loses her independence for ever in the bonds of matrimony. While there is less constraint on girls there than anywhere else, a wife submits to stricter obligations. For the former, her father’s house is a home of freedom and pleasure; for the latter, her husband’s is almost a cloister.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
A perfect wife is one who helps her husband with the dishes.
—Unknown
Many a promising career has been wrecked by marrying the wrong sort of woman. The right sort of woman can distinguish between Creative Lassitude and plain shiftlessness.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
I… chose my wife as she did her wedding-gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but such qualities as would wear well.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
If you are really Master of your Fate, it shouldn’t make any difference to you whether Cleopatra or the Bearded Lady is your mate.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
Marry a mountain girl and you marry the whole mountain.
—Irish Proverb
The philosophy of the common man is an old wife that gives him no pleasure, yet he cannot live without her, and resents any aspersions that strangers may cast on her character.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
Choose a wife by your ear than your eye.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
A man’s wife has more power over him than the state has.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
It’s my old girl that advises. She has the head. But I never own to it before her. Discipline must be maintained.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.
—Anne Bradstreet (1612–72) American Poet
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