Husbands never become good; they merely become proficient.
Interpretation
Husbands may not inherently improve as individuals, but they can learn to fulfill their roles better over time.
This quote by H. L. Mencken suggests that the role of a husband doesn't necessarily transform a man into a better person; instead, it implies that with time, experience, and practice, he becomes more skilled at being a husband. It reflects on the nature of marriage and personal development, indicating that proficiency in marital duties comes from continuous effort rather than a fundamental change in character.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a wedding toast to hint at the humorous yet realistic expectations of marriage.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
You know how it is when two souls meet in a burst of ecstatic volubility, with hearts tickling to hear and to tell, to know everything, to reveal everything, the shared reverence for the other's otherness, a feeling of solitude radiantly snapped by full *contact* - all that?
Iβll wait for you. Come back. The words were not meaningless, but they didnβt touch him now. It was clear enough - one person waiting for another was like an arithmetical sum, and just as empty of emotion. Waiting. Simply one person doing nothing, over time, while another approached. Waiting was a heavy word.
Excess of love, did ye say? There was no excess, there was defect. She loved her son too little, not too much. If she had loved him more there'd be no difficulty.
Strange how people who suffer together have stronger connections than those who are most content.
All pretty girls are a trap, a pretty trap, and men expect them to be.
A smile abroad is often a scowl at home.
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