Marriage halves our griefs, doubles our joys, and quadruples our expenses.

This proverb compresses a wry, practical view of marriage into a neat set of ratios. It suggests that partnership offers emotional benefits—sorrow is shared and therefore feels lighter, while happiness is amplified through mutual enjoyment and affirmation. At the same time, it undercuts any purely romantic idealization by pointing to the material realities of household formation: two lives joined typically mean larger domestic outlays and social expectations, so “expenses” multiply faster than feelings. The humor lies in the escalating arithmetic, which implies that love may be priceless, but married life is not. The saying thus balances sentiment with satire, praising companionship while warning of its costs.

1) "Marriage halves our sorrows, doubles our joys, and quadruples our expenses." 2) "Marriage: it halves our griefs, doubles our joys, and quadruples our expenses." 3) "Marriage halves our sorrows, doubles our pleasures, and quadruples our expenses."