XLV. The progression of pleasures is from the distich to the quatrain, from the quatrain to the sonnet, from the sonnet to the ballad, from the ballad to the ode, from the ode to the cantata, from the cantata to the dithyramb. The husband who commences with dithyramb is a fool.
XLVI.
Each night ought to have its menu.
XLVII.
Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster which devours everything, that is, familiarity.
XLVIII.
If a man cannot distinguish the difference between the pleasures of two consecutive nights, he has married too early.
XLIX. It is easier to be a lover than a husband, for the same reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day, than to say bright things from time to time.
L.
A husband ought never to be the first to go to sleep and the last to awaken.
LI.
The man who enters his wife’s dressing-room is either a philosopher or an imbecile.
LII.
The husband who leaves nothing to desire is a lost man.
LIII.
The married woman is a slave whom one must know how to set upon a throne.
LIV.
A man must not flatter himself that he knows his wife, and is making her happy unless he sees her often at his knees.