Quotes about marriage
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“On the question of marriage, there is a gulf between some people and the Church. The question, therefore, becomes quite simple: Must the world change its attitude, or must the Church change her fidelity to God?”

Robert Sarah (1945) Roman Catholic bishop

God or Nothing: A Conversation on Faith (2015)

God, People, World, Question

“Marriage is for women the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

1920s, Marriage and Morals (1929)

Women, Sex

“In past ages, the law governing the survival of the fittest roughly weeded out the less desirable strains. Then man's new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. … The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct. … The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.”

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian American inventor

A Machine to End War (1937)

Age, Law, Nature, Parent

“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Marriage

For Wife, love, Relationship, Romantic

“Suitable is the happiness when there is whole existence, and you don't have whole existence more than marriage.”

Judah Loew ben Bezalel (1512–1609) Czech rabbi

Tiferet Israel, Ch. 30

Happiness

“Marriage is a fine institution, but I'm not ready for an institution.”

Mae West (1893–1980) American actress and sex symbol

#149 in The 2,548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said (2006) by Robert Byrne

“[Speaking about same-sex marriage] It’s about familiarity, and I think the only reason they’re uncomfortable with the notion of same-sex marriages is because they haven’t come into contact with gay and lesbian couples enough to understand that it’s about love—and that it is a civil right.”

Jennifer Beals (1963) American actress and a former teen model

Curve Magazine Interview (Summer 2009) http://www.curvemag.com/Curve-Magazine/Web-Articles-2008/Goodbye-to-Romance/.

Love, Sex, Understanding, Thinking

“I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

As quoted in "Barack Obama Answers Your Questions About Gay Marriage, Paying For College, More" at MTV News (1 November 2008) http://www.mtv.com/news/1598407/barack-obama-answers-your-questions-about-gay-marriage-paying-for-college-more/ 2008

Personality

“Why should I marry? One marries to have children, but I already have children! My nieces and nephews are my children. I wanted to marry to make babies, but now I have them, so marriage isn't that important, is it?”

Salman Khan (1965) Indian film actor

Quotes By Salman
Source: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006795/bio#quotes

Children, Baby

“Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes”

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works

Letter to Michael Tolkien (March 1941)
Context: Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more perfect world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners might be found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.

Happiness

“Marriage is a noose.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 19.

“All which relates to the overspreading of the Greek Empire with Monks and Nuns, who placed holiness in abstinence from marriage; and to the invocation of saints and veneration of their relics, and such like superstitions, which these men introduced in the fourth and fifth centuries.”

Isaac Newton (1643–1727) British physicist and mathematician and founder of modern classical physics

Vol. I, Ch. 12: Of the Prophecy of the Scripture of Truth
Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John (1733)
Context: Hitherto the Roman Empire continued entire; and under this dominion, the little horn of the He-Goat continued mighty, but not by his own power. But now, by the building of Constantinople, and endowing it with a Senate and other like privileges with Rome; and by the division of the Roman Empire into the two Empires of the Greeks and Latins, headed by those two cities; a new scene of things commences, in which which a King, the Empire of the Greeks, doth according to his will, and, by setting his own laws above the laws of God, exalts and magnifies himself above every God, and speaks marvelous things against the God of Gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished.—Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the lawful desire of women in matrimony, nor any God, but shall magnify himself above all. And in his seat he shall honor Mahuzzims, that is, strong guardians, the souls of the dead; even with a God whom his fathers knew not shall he honor them, in their Temples, with gold and silver, and with precious stones and valuable things. All which relates to the overspreading of the Greek Empire with Monks and Nuns, who placed holiness in abstinence from marriage; and to the invocation of saints and veneration of their relics, and such like superstitions, which these men introduced in the fourth and fifth centuries. And at the time of the end the King of the South, or the Empire of the Saracens, shall push at him; and the King of the North, or Empire of the Turks, shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots and with horsemen, and with many ships; and be shall enter into the countries of the Greeks, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom and Moab, and the chief of the children Ammon: that is, those to whom his Caravans pay tribute. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape; but he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Lybians and Ethiopians shall be at his steps. All these nations compose the Empire of the Turks, and therefore this Empire is here to be understood by the King of the North. They compose also the body of the He-Goat; and therefore the Goat still reigns in his last horn, but not by his own power.

Men

“Here's the advice I give everyone about marriage — is she someone you find interesting?”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2018
Context: Here's the advice I give everyone about marriage — is she someone you find interesting? … You will spend more time with this person than anyone else for the rest of your life, and there is nothing more important than always wanting to hear what she has to say about things … Does she make you laugh? And I don’t know if you want kids, but if you do, do you think she will be a good mom? Life is long. These are the things that really matter over the long term.

“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person. ”

Миньон МакЛафлин (1913–1983)

For Wife, love, Relationship, Romantic

“Malays abhor the state of celibacy. To remain unmarried was and is considered shameful. Everyone must be married at some time or other. The result is that whether a person is fit or unfit for marriage, he or she still marries and reproduces. An idiot or a simpleton is often married off to an old widower, ostensibly to take care of him in his old age. If this is not possible, backward relatives are paired off in marriage. These people survive, reproduce and propagate their species. The cumulative effect of this can be left to the imagination.”

Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) First Prime Minister of Singapore

[Barr, Michael D., Lee Kuan Yew: Race, Culture and Genes, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 1999, 29 2, 147, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5058/d1bc358fe18944e8aaa399e422f74d0fed75.pdf]
1980s

Time, Imagination, Personality, People

“The marriage of those who have been baptized is, in addition, invested with the dignity of a sacramental sign of grace, for it represents the union of Christ and His Church.”

Pope Paul VI Humanae Vitae

Sacro autem baptismate ablutis, matrimonium eiusmodi praeditum est dignitate, ut gratiae sacramentale signum exsistat, cum Christi et Ecclesiae coniunctionem designet.
HUMANAE VITAE
Official Vatican translation.

Christ

“Our religion and culture, our history and tradition, our social code and economic system, our laws of inheritance, succession and marriage are fundamentally different from those of most peoples living in the rest of India. The ideals which move our people to make the highest sacrifices are essentially different from those which inspire the Hindus to do the same. These differences are not confined to broad, basic principles. Far from it. They extend to the minutest details of our lives. We do not inter-dine; we do not inter-marry. Our national customs and calendars, even our diet and dress are different.”

Choudhry Rahmat Ali book Pakistan Declaration

28 January 1933, quoted in Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever? (Pakistan Declaration)
Ideology of Pakistan

Religion, Law, Success, History

“Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Soul, Friendship

“I found marriage somewhat stifling. I don't know that I am the kind of man who ought to be married.”

Burt Lancaster (1913–1994) American actor and producer

other quotes

“I'm not the marrying kind -"
St. Vincent snorted. "No man is. Marriage is a female invention.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Mine Till Midnight

“Without opium, plans, marriages and journeys appear to me just as foolish as if someone falling out of a window were to hope to make friends with the occupants of the room before which he passes.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

Source: Opium: The Diary of His Cure

Hope, Appearance

“Bad divorce?" Hardy asked, his gaze falling to my hands. I realized I was clutching my purse in a death grip.

“No, the divorce was great,” I said. “It was the marriage that sucked.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Blue-Eyed Devil

Death

“A wedding is and event, but marriage is a life.”

Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister

Source: Waiting and Dating

Life, Wedding

“Taking a thing apart is always faster than putting something together. This is true of everything except marriage.”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: 20th Century Ghosts

“He thought of her often, and he missed the companionship they'd once shared and the friendship that had been the bedrock of their marriage at its best.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Source: Safe Haven

Friendship

“Your work should be an act of love, not a marriage of convenience.”

Haruki Murakami book Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Source: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Love

“What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are but how you deal with incompatibility.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Relationship, Wedding, Happiness

“Out of the frying pan into the fire! What is marriage but prostitution to one man instead of many? No different!”

Angela Carter book Nights at the Circus

Source: Nights at the Circus

“Love is a vessel that contains both security and adventure, and commitment offers one of the great luxuries of life: time. Marriage is not the end of romance, it is the beginning.”

Esther Perel (1958) Belgian Psychotherapist and Author

Source: Mating in Captivity: Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic

Love, Life, Time

“It's not easy having a good marriage--but I don't want easy. Easy doesn't make you grow. Easy doesn't make you think. I thank God everyday that I am married to a man who makes me think. That's my definition of true love.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

Love, God, Thinking

“… I think I know the secret to a long and happy marriage - just choose someone you can't live without.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Smooth Talking Stranger

Secret, Thinking, Happiness

“It may be that same-sex couples will save the institution of marriage.”

Elizabeth Gilbert (1969) American writer

Sex

“If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Love, Friendship

“Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Book III, Ch. 5
Attributed
Source: The Complete Essays

Bird

“It was a peculiar marriage of interests- Lord Averill and Captain Byrne and Lord Bayar and Han Alister agreeing on anything was as rare as gold in Ragmarket.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: The Gray Wolf Throne

“Marriage is a big word for all guys,” Shane said. “You know that. It’s kind of an allergy. We get itchy and sweaty just trying to spell it, much less do it.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Last Breath

Guy

“I think I may be in love with you, Sophie," said Will. "Marriage could be in the cards.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Love, Thinking

“Divorce isn't such a tragedy. A tragedy's staying in an unhappy marriage, teaching your children the wrong things about love. Nobody ever died of divorce.”

Jennifer Weiner (1970) American writer

Source: Fly Away Home

Love, Children

“I hold an old-fashioned notion that a happy marriage is the crown of a woman’s life.”

Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) English children's writer and illustrator

Life, Fashion, Happiness

“Whoever invented marriage was an ingenious tormentor. It is an institution committed to the dulling of the feelings. The whole point of marriage is repetition. The best it aims for is the creation of strong, mutual dependencies.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Source: Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963

Feeling, Strong, Dependency

“A liberated woman is one who has sex before marriage and a job after.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

Sex

“But my agent has a theory. She says every marriage is jerry-rigged. Even the ones that look reasonable from the outside are held together inside with chewing gum and wire and string.”

Jenny Offill book Dept. of Speculation

Source: Dept. of Speculation

“I think the main reason my marriages failed is that I always loved too well but never wisely.”

Ava Gardner (1922–1990) American actress

Love, Thinking

“Don't hide behind the Constitution or the Bible. If you're against gay marriage, just be honest, put a scarlet 'H' on your shirt, and say, 'I am a homophobe!”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Talk is Cheap Volume 1 (1998)
Source: Talk is Cheap: Volume 1

“Marriage, each of them realized intuitively, was about compromise and forgiveness. It was about balance, where one person complemented the other.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Choice

Travis Parker, Chapter 16, p. 203
Variant: Relationship is about forgiveness and compromise. It is about balance where one person complements each other.
Source: 2000s, The Choice (2007)

Forgiveness, Personality

“Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer

Children, Flowers

“The marriage partner is not really the problem. No other person can ultimately make you happy. You must learn how to be happy within yourself.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

Problem, Learning, Personality, Happiness

“If things were different, if there were no revolution, no war, no threads of light, if he were rich, would he go back to London with her and ask for her hand in marriage? He smiled, for the answer was simple. Yes, yes, he would.”

Sally Gardner book The Red Necklace

Source: The Red Necklace

War, Smile, Light

“People say children from broken homes have it hard, but the children of charmed marriages have their own particular challenges.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Children, People, Home

“Why is she so stubborn? And disobedient?” Cameron barked a laugh. “Because Mackenzies always choose headstrong women. You didn’t really expect her to obey you, did you? No matter what the marriage vows say?”

Jennifer Ashley (1974) American author

Source: The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie

Women

“It may have been observed that there is no regular path for getting out
of love as there is for getting in. Some people look upon marriage as a
short cut that way, but it has been known to fail.”

Thomas Hardy book Far from the Madding Crowd

Source: Far from the Madding Crowd

Love, People, Way

“Other people's marriages are a perpetual source of amazement.”

Patrick O'Brian book The Commodore

Source: The Commodore (1995)

People

“Marriage, in my view, should be a balanced stalemate between equal adversaries.”

Elizabeth Peters book The Mummy Case

Source: The Mummy Case

“Maybe marriage, like life, isn't only about the big moments, whether they be good or bad. Maybe it's all the small things—like being guided slowly forward, surely, day after day—that stretches out to strengthen even the most tenuous bond.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Life

“Maybe the point is that any marriage is work, but you may as well pick work that you like.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

“Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can't sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can't sleep with the window open.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Anniversary, Sleep

“Lady Nancy Astor: If I were your wife I'd put poison in your coffee.
Churchill: If I were your husband I'd drink it.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Dates to 1899, American humor origin, originally featuring a woman upset by a man's cigar smoking. Cigar often removed in later versions, coffee added in 1900. Incorrectly attributed in Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, Glitter and Gold (1952). See various early citations and references to refutations at “If you were my husband, I’d poison your coffee” (Nancy Astor to Churchill?) http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/if_you_were_my_husband_id_poison_your_coffee_nancy_astor_to_churchill, Barry Popik, The Big Apple,' February 09, 2009 Early examples include 19 November 1899, Gazette-Telegraph (CO), "Tales of the Town," p. 7, and early attributions are to American humorists Marshall P. Wilder and De Wolf Hopper. Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations, by Richard Langworth, PublicAffairs, 2008, p. 578. The Yale Book of Quotations, edited by Fred R. Shapiro, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2006, p. 155. George Thayer, The Washington Post (April 27, 1971), p. B6. Misattributed Variant: Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if you were my husband, I'd put arsenic in your morning coffee. Winston Churchill: Madam, if you were my wife, I'd drink it.

Coffee, Drink

“The value of marriage is not that adults produce children, but that children produce adults.”

Peter de Vries (1910–1993) American editor and novelist

Children