Written by London swaminathan

Article No.1934

Date :15^th June 2015

Time uploaded in London: 20-50

Socrates’ marital difficulties are well known. Out of them he coined this sage advice: “By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you will become very happy; if you get bad one you will become a philosopher – and that is good for everyman”.

To be or Not to be

When Socrates was asked whether it was better for a man to marry or remain single, he answered:

“Let him take which course he will, he will repent of it”

Thunder and Rain

From my post 60 Second Interview with Socrates (posted on 12-2-2012)

We understand that your wife was very rude to you. One day she scolded you for lecturing. When you did not stop, she poured on you a bucket full of water. Shakespeare in his play “Taming of the Shrew” mentions your wife’s rudeness. What did you say to your friends then?

“You heard thunder and now it is raining”.

HOD HASHARON, ISRAEL 

Football and Marriage

An old gentleman, who had never attended a football game, allowed himself to be persuaded by a fan to accompany him. “Now then”, said his friend, as the game was about to begin, “you are going to see more excitement for a couple of dollars than you ever saw before”. “I doubt it”, said the old timer, “that’s all I paid for my marriage license”

The Light has Gone out

A widower in his great bereavement, expressed his feelings by having engraved on the tombstone of his wife the line, “My light has gone out”. As he was about to marry again, he asked the advice of Bishop Henry C.Potter as to  whether or not he should have the inscription erased as it seemed at variance with the new conditions.

“Oh, No,” said the Bishop, “I wouldn’t have taken it off; just put underneath it, “I have struck another match”.

Rose and Thorns

When the poet Milton was blind he married a shrew. The Duke of Buckingham called her a rose. “I am no judge of colours”, replied Milton, “and it may so, for I feel the thorns daily”.

Tamil and English Proverbs

There is a Tamil proverb , “After marriage there will be  desire for sixty days, lust will last thirty days, and after ninety days have passed, she will be considered a broomstick ( In Tamil – Aasai arupathu Naal, moham muppathu Naal, Thonnuuru Naalum ponaal Thudappai kattai).

There is an equivalent English proverb:

“When a couple are newly married, the first month is honey moon or smick and smack;

The second is hither and thither;

The third is thwick-thwack;

The fourth – The devil take them that brought thee and me together”.

“Mother, what sort of a thing is marriage?

Daughter, it is spinning, bearing children and weeping”.