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 perfect wife is one who helps her husband with the dishes.
—Unknown
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
The majority of persons choose their wives with as little prudence as they eat. They see a troll with nothing else to recommend her but a pair of thighs and choice hunkers, and so smart to void their seed that they marry her at once. They imagine they can live in marvelous contentment with handsome feet and ambrosial buttocks. Most men are accredited fools shortly after they leave the womb.
—Edward Dahlberg (1900–77) American Novelist, Essayist, Autobiographer
Such a wife as I want… must be young, handsome I lay most stress upon a good shape, sensible a little learning will do, well-bread, chaste, and tender. As to religion, a moderate stock will satisfy me. She must believe in God and hate a saint.
—Alexander Hamilton (c.1757–1804) American Federalist Politician, Statesman
He knows little, who will tell his wife all he knows.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
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
That’s what a man wants in a wife, mostly; he wants to make sure one fool tells him he’s wise.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English 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
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
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
To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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
The fact is that my wife if she had common sense would have more power over me than any other whatsoever, for my heart always alights upon the nearest perch.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Never take a wife till thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Choose a wife by your ear than your eye.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
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
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
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
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
No girl who is going to marry need bother to win a college degree; she just naturally becomes a “Master of Arts” and a “Doctor of Philosophy” after catering to an ordinary man for a few years.
—Helen Rowland (1875–1950) American Journalist, Humorist
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
The true index of a man’s character is the health of his wife.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
Marry a mountain girl and you marry the whole mountain.
—Irish Proverb
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
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
A good wife and health is a mans best wealth.
—Common Proverb
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
Those graceful acts, those thousand decencies, that daily flow from all her words and actions, mixed with love and sweet compliance, which declare unfeigned union of mind, or in us both one soul.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
Progress is the law of life; man is not a man as yet.
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet
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