A man's best fortune or his worst is a wife. (Strauss, 1994 p. 65)
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Marriage can greatly improve or worsen a man's life
Literally: a man's best or worst luck is his wife
Examples
He often says a man's best fortune or his worst is a wife
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “A man's best fortune or his worst is a wife. (Strauss, 1994 p. 65)” mean?
Marriage can greatly improve or worsen a man's life Literally: a man's best or worst luck is his wife
Is “A man's best fortune or his worst is a wife. (Strauss, 1994 p. 65)” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.