Family

"A light wife doth make a heavy husband."

"The impurity of the eyes is to gaze upon the beauty of another man's wife, and his wealth."

"Nothing, Cyrnus, is more delightful than a good wife; to the truth of this I am witness to thee and do thou become witness to me."

"O ye gods, Render me worthy of this noble wife!"

"A good wyf, that is clene of werk and thoght, Sholde nat been kept in noon await, certayn; And trewely, the labour is in vayn To kepe a shrewe, for it wol nat be. This holde I for a verray nycetee, To spille labour, for to kepe wyves; Thus writen olde clerkes in hir lyves."

"I will be master of what is mine own; She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, My household stuff, my field, my barn, My horse, my ox, my ass, my anything; And here she stands, touch her whoever dare."

"A fat, fair and fifty card-playing resident of the Crescent."

"Giving honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel."

"The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband. And in like manner the husband also hath not power of his own body, but the wife."

"Should all despair That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind Would hang themselves."

"It is related that on one occasion the Prophet said': "Beat not your wives." Then Umar came to the Prophet and said, "Our wives have got. the upper hand of the their husbands from hearing this." Then the Prophet permitted beating of wives. Then an immense number of women collected round the Prophet's family, and complained of their husbands beating them. And the Prophet said," Verily a great number of women are assembled in my home complaining of their husbands, and those men who beat their wives do not behave well. He is not of my way who teach a woman to go astray and who entices a slave from his master."

"But what so pure, which envious tongues will spare? Some wicked wits have libell'd all the fair. With matchless impudence they style a wife The dear-bought curse, and lawful plague of life; A bosom-serpent, a domestic evil, A night-invasion and a mid-day-devil. Let not the wife these sland'rous words regard, But curse the bones of ev'ry living bard."

"Let the husband render to his wife the affection owed her, and likewise also the wife to her husband."

"It is a woman's business to get married as soon as possible, and a man's to keep unmarried as long as he can."

"Admonish your wives with kindness, because woman were created from a crooked bone of the side; therefore, if you wish to straighten it, you will break it, and if you let it alone, it will always be crooked."

"When a man calls his wife, she must come, although she be at an oven."

"Not one of you must whip his wife like whipping a slave."

"Regarding the treatment. of wives, the following verse in the Qur'an (Surah iv. 38) allows the husband absolute power to correct them: "Chide those whose refractoriness you have cause to fear. Remove them into sleeping chambers apart, and beat them. But if they are obedient to you, then seek not occasion against them.""

"A Muslim must not hate his wife, for if he be displeased with one bad quality in her, thou let him he pleased with another that is good."

"That is the moat perfect Muslim whose disposition is the best, and the best of you is he who behaves best to his wives."

"All other goods by fortune's hand are given, A wife is the peculiar gift of heaven."

"My dear, my better half."

"It is the duty of both men and women to honour their parents. However, a married woman, who owes devotion to her husband, is exempt from the precept of honouring her parents. Yet, she is obliged to do for the parents, all she can, if her husband does not object."

"They'll tell thee, sailors, when away, In every port a mistress find."

"One wife is too much for most husbands to bear, But two at a time there's no mortal can bear."

"She commandeth her husband, in any equal matter, by constant obeying him."

"Without equality there can be no real marriage. The wife who is excluded from all the interests that occupy her husband, who is alien to them and does not share them, may be a concubine, a housekeeper, a nurse, but not a wife in the full, honourable sense of the word."

"With caution choose the partner of your bed: Whom fifteen springs have crown'd, a virgin wed. Let prudence now direct your choice; a wife Is or a blessing, or a curse, in life; Her father, mother, know, relations, friends, For on her education much depends."

"For nothing lovelier can be found In woman, than to study household good, And good works in her husband to promote."

"When a man has two wives and does not treat them equally, he will come on the Day of Resurrection with half his body fallen off."

"An undutiful Daughter will prove an unmanageable Wife."

"The Prophet used to divide his time equally amongst his wives, and he would say, 'O God, I divide impartially that which thou hast put in my power.'"

"Rich widows are the only secondhand goods that sell at first-class prices."

"Roy's wife of Aldivalloch, Roy's wife of Aldivalloch, Wat ye how she cheated me As I cam o'er the braes of Balloch."

"Awake, My fairest, my espous'd, my latest found, Heaven's last best gift, my ever new delight!"

"A Muslim cannot obtain anything better than an amiable and beautiful wife, such a wife who, when ordered by her husband to do a thing, will obey, and if her husband looks at her will be happy; and if her husband swears by her, she will make him a swearer of truth; and if ha be absent from her, she will honour him with her own person and property."

"He knows little who will tell his wife all he knows."

"Uxorem accepi, dote imperium vendidi."

"For what thou art is mine: Our state cannot be sever'd; we are one, One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself."

"He who loves his wife loves himself."

"Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life."

"A. You make sure: 1. That my clothes and laundry are kept in good order and repair; 2. that I receive my three meals regularly in my room; 3. that my bedroom and my office are always kept neat, in particular, that the desk is available to me alone. B. You renounce all personal relations with me as far as maintaining them is not absolutely required for social reasons. Specifically, you do without: 1. my sitting at home with you; 2. my going out or traveling together with you. C. In you relations with me you commit yourself explicitly to adhering to the following points: 1.You are neither to expect intimacy from me nor to reproach me in any way. 2. You must desist immediately from addressing me, if I request it. 3. You must leave my bedroom or office immediately without protest if I so request. D. You commit yourself not to disparage me either in word or in deed in front of my children."

"In the election of a wife, as in A project of war, to err but once is To be undone forever."

"Thou art mine, thou hast given thy word, Close, close in my arms thou art clinging; Alone for my ear thou art singing A song which no stranger hath heard: But afar from me yet, like a bird, Thy soul in some region unstirr'd On its mystical circuit is winging."

"I will not fall for any of the following: alcoholics, workaholics, commitment phobics, people with girlfriends or wives, misogynists, megalomanics, chauvists, emotional fuckwits or freeloaders, perverts."

"As for my wife, I would you had her spirit in such another; The third o' the world is yours; which with a snaffle You may pace easy, but not such a wife."

"Flesh of thy flesh, nor yet bone of thy bone."

"We also know today why “wives” would be one of the resources over which men should compete. In most animal species, the female makes a greater investment in offspring than the male. This is especially true of mammals, where the mother gestates her offspring inside her body and nurses them after they are born. A male can multiply the number of his offspring by mating with several females—which will leave other males childless—while a female cannot multiply the number of her offspring by mating with several males. This makes female reproductive capacity a scarce resource over which the males of many species, including humans, compete. None of this, by the way, implies that men are robots controlled by their genes, that they may be morally excused for raping or fighting, that women are passive sexual prizes, that people try to have as many babies as possible, or that people are impervious to influences from their culture, to take some of the common misunderstandings of the theory of sexual selection."

"What thou bidd'st Unargu'd I obey, so God ordains; God is thy law, thou mine; to know no more Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise."

"Here were we fallen in a greate question of ye lawe whyther ye grey mare may be the better horse or not."