Context

This line is the entire poem, "The Perfect Husband," by Ogden Nash. It was included on page 163 of his book Versus (1949).

This line was written by Ogden Nash in 1949. In his day, Nash was the king of light verse, which means he was basically a genius with writing short, quippy poems that were as funny as they were smart.

At a whopping two lines, this poem sums up the ol' married life back then, succinctly and with a jolt of humor. If you don't know what a girdle is, you're not missing out on much.

Where you've heard it

Unless you're browsing recent collections of humorous quotes, you may not have heard this one. One of these days, it might come in handy though—matrimonially speaking.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Remember all those times you've asked for an "honest opinion" and gotten angry at the outcome? Well, in marriage, there's a whole lot of that, only brutal honesty ain't so bad when it's coming from a place of love, right?