I have learned that only two things are necessary to keep one's wife happy. First, let her think she's having her own way. And second, let her have it.

Framed as homespun marital advice, the line hinges on a comic “two-step” that collapses into a single principle: harmony comes from yielding. The first clause—letting a wife think she has her own way—suggests a stereotyped, slightly patronizing view of marital negotiation as a matter of managing perceptions. The punchline reverses that implication by recommending genuine concession (“let her have it”), implying that the easiest—and perhaps wisest—path is simply to defer. Read more broadly, it reflects a pragmatic, transactional view of relationships: peace is maintained less by winning arguments than by choosing which battles not to fight.