Do not forget the delicacies of life, manner, speech, and deportment in the intimacy of daily companionship.
Never descend to the vulgar or the commonplace.
One characteristic of men has always puzzled me. No matter how wide has been a bachelor's experience with the wives and daughters of other men, when he marries it never occurs to him that his wife or daughters could meet temptation or know human weakness.
It must be the egotism of the sex.
Each man excuses the susceptibility of the women with whom he has had romantic episodes, on the ground of his especial power or charm. And when he marries, he believes his society renders all the women of his family immune from other attractions.
Do not rely upon the fact that your wife is legally bound to you, and therefore need not be wooed by you hereafter.
There are women who are born anew with each dawn, and who must be won anew with each day, or the lover loses some precious quality than can never be regained.
It will pay you to study your wife as the years pass.
Do not take for granted that you know her to-day, because you knew her thoroughly last year.
This is a long letter, but when one writes only once in seven years, brevity is not to be expected.