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
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
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
Wives are people who feel they don’t dance enough.
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
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
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
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
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
Progress is the law of life; man is not a man as yet.
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet