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If husbands could realize what large returns of profit may be gotten out of a wife by a small word of praise paid over the counter when the market is just right, they would bring matters around the way they wish them much oftener than they usually do. Arguments are unsafe with wives, because they examine them; but they do not examine compliments. One can pass upon a wife a compliment that is three-fourths base
Mark Twain
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Husbands often overlook the power of praise in improving their relationships with their wives.

Mark Twain humorously suggests that husbands could significantly enhance their marriages by offering genuine compliments to their wives. He implies that while arguments may lead to scrutiny and conflict, compliments are generally accepted without question, thereby serving as a more effective means of communication and connection in a relationship.

Themes

PraiseRelationshipsMarriageComplimentsCommunication

In practice

Example use cases

During a marriage seminar, a speaker could use this quote to highlight the importance of praise.

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Quote by Mark Twain | QuoteProject