My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you’ll be happy; if not, you’ll become a philosopher.

The saying is a wry epigram built on a double outcome: marriage either brings personal happiness (if one marries well) or, if it brings hardship, it becomes a spur to reflection and intellectual growth—“you’ll become a philosopher.” Its humor depends on the stereotype of domestic difficulty as a training ground for patience and self-knowledge. In the Socratic spirit, it also implies that philosophy is not merely academic but arises from lived experience and adversity. However, because the attribution to Socrates is doubtful, the quote’s significance today is often more as a later comic “Socratic” anecdote than as evidence of Socrates’ own views on marriage.

“By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.”
“Marry: if you find a good wife you will be happy; if not, you will become a philosopher.”
“Get married. If you get a good wife, you’ll be happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.”