The most painful feeling for a woman to have is to know that she is wrong, because she will not acknowledge it. While she is consuming her own smoke, pity her, and never aggravate her by saying, 'I told you so!' There is such a damnable look of self-satisfaction on the face of a man who says to a woman, 'I told you so!' If I were a woman, I could not resist the temptation of slapping the face of a man who told me so.
Poor thing! It is quite bad enough for her to be wrong, without having to suffer a sneering reminder.
The man who tries to prove, or, worse still, who succeeds in proving, to a woman that she is wrong has not a particle of gentlemanly feeling in him. He is an idiot, a bore, and a brute.
If your wife is wrong, cast down your eyes modestly, smile, and say nothing. If she does not know she is wrong, she will admire your courtesy; if she does, she will admire your self-control. A woman always admires these two qualities in a man.
And when she is right—mind you, perhaps she may be: the most extraordinary things will happen—don't be mean. Be sure you allow her the fullest enjoyment of the victory.
So, whether your wife be right or wrong, always treat her as if she were right. You will thus pay the lady either her due or a compliment, and you are sure to win.
Alexandre Dumas said that women were not given beards because they would never have been able to keep still and silent while being shaved.