# The Winds of War ![rw-book-cover](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dAP7n2ySL._SL200_.jpg) ## Metadata - Author: [[Herman Wouk]] - Full Title: The Winds of War - Category: #books ## Highlights - You’d better give some hard thought to the long pull that a marriage is. I know I’m jumping the gun, but now is the time to reflect, before you’re too involved. Never, never forget one thing. The girl you marry, and the woman you must make a life with, are two different people. Women have a way of living in the present. Before marriage she’s out to win you. Afterward you’re just one of the many factors in her life. In a way you’re secondary, because she has you, whereas everything else is in flux—children, household, new clothes, social ties. If these other factors are disagreeable to her, she will make you unhappy. In a marriage with a girl like Natalie Jastrow, the other factors would all tend to bother her perpetually, from the mixed-breed children to the tiny social slights. These might get to be like the Chinese water-drop torture. If so, you’d both gradually grow bitter and miserable, and by then you’d be tied together by children. This could end up as hell on earth. ([Location 307](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0020BUX54&location=307))