By all means: tracing the marriage and philosophy saying
"By all means, marry" opens a saying whose original author remains unknown in the attribution account. Its contrast is familiar in the entry: a good wife brings happiness, while a bad one leads to becoming a philosopher. The note records versions attached to Socrates and an attribution to Sydney Smith, but it does not establish an origin. That is a complete answer to the authorship question, even though it leaves a name unresolved. The interesting next step is to inspect the references individually, keeping a printed attribution separate from an established author and a variant separate from identical wording.
The Sydney Smith attribution appears in Speaker's Handbook of Epigrams and Witticisms, dated 1955, by Herbert Prochnow, on page 190. Those details identify a place where a name was attached to the saying. They do not establish that Smith composed it. The note begins by calling the origin unknown, so that qualification needs to remain in view when discussing the handbook. A concise retelling can say that the book attributes the line to Smith. A stronger statement about original authorship would go beyond what the account supplies. Preserving that distinction is the central task in reading this reference.
A different version appears in Why Are You Single?, dated 1949, by Hilda Holland, on page 49. It frames the saying as a reply attributed to Socrates when a young man asks whether to marry. Its wording begins "By all means, marry" and elaborates the contrasting outcomes. The happier possibility becomes happiness forever after, while the other possibility refers to a common scold like Xanthippe and becoming a philosopher. This is a reported variant with a narrative frame. That frame should be described as part of the version, rather than retold as an independently established conversation between historical people.
The magazine reference adds an earlier printed variant. The account identifies The Golden Book Magazine and places the passage in July 1935, on page 97. This wording changes the opening to "Marry by all means" and describes becoming very happy or becoming a philosopher, adding that the latter is good for every man. The note says no source is given there beyond the attribution to Socrates. That limitation is part of the evidence, not an inconvenience to edit away. A named figure appears with the saying, but the reference does not supply a further source for connecting that figure to its composition.
Comparing the openings shows what a variant comparison can accomplish. "By all means" appears before the instruction to marry in the entry and the Holland version, while the magazine version places the instruction first. Other changes expand the happy outcome, introduce Xanthippe in the Holland version, or add a comment about philosophy in the magazine version. These differences can be described directly from the recorded wording. They establish that the account contains related versions; they do not establish who revised whom. Avoiding an invented path between versions leaves the comparison useful without making it carry more historical weight than the references support.
The dates arrange the cited appearances in a readable order: the magazine version in 1935, the Holland version in 1949, and the Prochnow attribution in 1955. An earlier appearance among these references is not automatically the saying's origin. The note explicitly leaves that origin unknown. For the "By all means" opening, the practical distinction is between tracing supplied appearances and identifying composition. The first task has concrete references available here. The second remains unresolved. This is why the answer can include dates and names while still declining to select an original author from the people named in the account.
The broader Socrates material offers another reason to handle attribution carefully. Socrates left no writings of his own, and awareness of his teachings comes primarily from ancient authors who referred to him. The page also describes Plato's works as the most extensive available source for knowledge of his ideas. Those statements provide context for reading quotations attached to Socrates, but they do not connect this marriage saying to a particular ancient work. That missing connection should remain missing in the retelling. The modern references supplied for the saying cannot be converted into an ancient citation simply because Socrates appears as the attributed speaker.
"By all means" therefore leads to an answer about the limits of attribution as well as a memorable line. The origin is unknown; the recorded references include a magazine attribution to Socrates, a narrative variant in Holland's book, and a handbook attribution to Sydney Smith. Each can be named without appointing any of them as the final authority on original authorship. The pleasure of the saying can remain separate from that unresolved question. A careful account gives the reader the dates, the variant wording, and the limits of the references, leaving a clear view of what is documented and what has not been established.