Quotes about marriage
page 7

Mark Heard photo
Hesiod photo
Laurence Sterne photo
Adam Smith photo

“Marriage is encouraged in China, not by the profitableness of children, but by the liberty of destroying them.”

Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist

Source: (1776), Book I, Chapter VIII, p. 87.

Ellen DeGeneres photo
Euripidés photo

“Never say that marriage has more of joy than pain.”

Source: Alcestis (438 BC), l. 238

Gary S. Becker photo
George Farquhar photo

“Hanging and marriage, you know, go by destiny.”

The Recruiting Officer (1706), Braz, Act iii, Sc. 2.

William Pitt the Younger photo
Periyar E. V. Ramasamy photo
Julian (emperor) photo
Stephen Tobolowsky photo
Thornton Wilder photo

“Marriage is a bribe to make a housekeeper think she's a householder.”

Vandergelder, in Act 1
The Matchmaker (1954)

Bruce Jenner photo

“I think, like a lot of people on this issue, I have really changed my thinking here to, ‘I don’t ever want to stand in front of anybody’s happiness.’ That’s not my job, okay? If that word – ‘marriage’ – is really, really that important to you, I can go with it.”

Bruce Jenner (1949) American reality television personality and retired Olympic decathlete champion

On The Ellen Degeneres Show http://www.ew.com/article/2015/09/08/ellen-degeneres-caitlyn-jenner-gay-marriage.

“The Lord's Supper! the marriage supper of the Lamb! There are vacant seats around the table here. Will there be dear ones missed at the table there?”

Abbott Eliot Kittredge (1834–1912) American minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 374.

John Adams photo

“The Holy Ghost carries on the whole Christian system in His truth. Not a baptism, not a marriage, not a Sacrament can be administered but by the Holy Ghost … There is no authority civil or religious: There can be no legitimate government but what is administered by the Holy Ghost. There can be no salvation without it. All without it is rebellion and perdition, or in more orthodox words damnation.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

Adams as misquoted by David Barton on Glenn Beck (Fox News) on , shown in the film The Hidden Faith of the Founding Fathers (2010), at 2:21:32. Without the ellipses and substituted words, this section of Adams's letter of (21 December 1809) http://books.google.com/books?id=84oTAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA248 reads:
But <span style="color:gray">my Friend there is something very serious in this Business. The Holy Ghost carries on the whole Christian system in</span> this earth. <span style="color:gray">Not a Baptism, not a Marriage not a Sacrament can be administered but by the Holy Ghost, who is transmitted from age to age by laying the hands of the Bishops on the heads of Candidates for the Ministry.</span> In the same manner as the holy Ghost is transmitted from Monarch to Monarch by the holy oil in the vial at Rheims which was brought down from Heaven by a Dove and by that other Phyal which I have seen in the Tower of London. <span style="color:gray">There is no Authority civil or religious: there can be no legitimate Government but what is administered by</span> this <span style="color:gray">Holy Ghost. There can be no salvation without it. All, without it is Rebellion and Perdition, or in more orthodox words Damnation.</span> Although this is all Artifice and Cunning in the secret original in the heart, yet they all believe it so sincerely that they would lay down their Lives under the Ax or the fiery Fagot for it. Alas the poor weak ignorant Dupe human Nature. There is so much King Craft, Priest Craft, Gentlemens Craft, Peoples Craft, Doctors Craft, Lawyers Craft, Merchants Craft, Tradesmens Craft, Labourers Craft and Devils Craft in the world, that it seems a desperate and impracticable Project to undeceive it.
Do you wonder that Voltaire and Paine have made Proselytes? Yet there was as much subtlety, Craft and Hypocrisy in Voltaire and Paine and more too than in Ignatius Loyola.
This Letter is so much in the tone of my Friend the Abby Raynal and the Grumblers of the last age, that I pray you to burn it. I cannot copy it.
<span style="color:gray">Your Prophecy my dear Friend has not become History as yet. I have no Resentment or Animosity against the Gentleman and abhor the Idea of blackening his Character or transmitting him in odious Colours to Posterity.
But I write with difficulty and am afraid of diffusing myself in too many Correspondences. If I should receive a Letter from him however I should not fail to acknowledge and answer it.</span>
Misattributed

Joseph Lewis photo

“Imagine using as an authority in the matter of marriage the opinion of a celibate priest!”

Joseph Lewis (1889–1968) American activist

The Philosophy of Atheism

John Updike photo
Kenneth Minogue photo
Ambrose Bierce photo
Mary McCarthy photo
Michael Badnarik photo
Jerry Falwell photo

“And the fact that John Kerry would not support a federal marriage amendment [prohibiting gay marriage], it equates in our minds as someone 150 years ago saying I'm personally opposed to slavery, but if my neighbor wants to own one or two that's OK. We don't buy that.”

Jerry Falwell (1933–2007) American evangelical pastor, televangelist, and conservative political commentator

CNN : Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0411/03/acd.01.html (3 November 2004)

Stephen Tobolowsky photo

“[…] it seems like people make the mistake of thinking love is about the bedroom. It's not. It's about the emergency room. Love and marriage is who will sit there and wait.”

Stephen Tobolowsky (1951) actor and writer

Stephen Tobolowsky in a Facebook post on July 8, 2014 https://www.facebook.com/stephentobolowsky/posts/900133026669930.

Alexandra Kollontai photo
Lucy Stone photo
Alexandra Kollontai photo

“I am still far from being the type of the positively new women who take their experience as and working women contemporaries, were able to understand that love was not the main goal of our life and that we knew how to place work at its center. Nevertheless we would have been able to create and achieve much more had our energies not been fragmentized in the eternal struggle with our egos and with our feelings for another. It was, in fact, an eternal defensive war against the intervention of the male into our ego, a struggle revolving around the problem-complex: work or marriage and love? We, the older generation, did not yet understand, as most men do and as young women are learning today, that work and the longing for love can be harmoniously combined so that work remains as the main goal of existence. Our mistake was that each time we succumbed to the belief that we had finally found the one and only in the man we loved, the person with whom we believed we could blend our soul, one who was ready fully to recognize us as a spiritual-physical force. But over and over again things turned out differently, since the man always tried to impose his ego upon us and adapt us fully to his purposes. Thus despite everything the inevitable inner rebellion ensued, over and over again since love became a fetter. We felt enslaved and tried to loosen the love-bond. And after the eternally recurring struggle with the beloved man, we finally tore ourselves away and rushed toward freedom. Thereupon we were again alone, unhappy, lonesome, but free–free to pursue our beloved, chosen ideal… work. Fortunately young people, the present generation, no longer have to go through this kind of struggle which is absolutely unnecessary to human society. Their abilities, their work-energy will be reserved for their creative activity. Thus the existence of barriers will become a spur.”

Alexandra Kollontai (1872–1952) Soviet diplomat

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

Aron Ra photo
Rick Warren photo
André Maurois photo

“Mrs Prentice: Have you taken up transvestism? I'd no idea our marriage teetered on the edge of fashion.”

Joe Orton (1933–1967) English playwright and author

What the Butler Saw (1969), Act I

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“1817. Keep thy eyes wide open before Marriage; and half shut afterward.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1738) : Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727)

Rick Warren photo

“The election's coming just in a couple of weeks, and I hope you're praying about your vote. One of the propositions, of course, that I want to mention is Proposition 8, which is the proposition that had to be instituted because the courts threw out the will of the people. And a court of four guys actually voted to change a definition of marriage that has been going for 5,000 years.
Now let me say this really clearly: we support Proposition 8 — and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8. I never support a candidate, but on moral issues I come out very clear.
This is one thing, friends, that all politicians tend to agree on. Both John McCain and Barack Obama, I flat out asked them "what is your definition of marriage?" and they both said the same thing. It is the traditional, historic, universal definition of marriage: one man and one woman, for life. … There are about 2% of Americans are homosexual or gay, lesbian people. We should not let 2% of the population determine — to change a definition of marriage that has been supported by every single culture, and every single religion, for 5,000 years. … So I urge you to support Proposition 8, and pass that word on. I'm going to be sending out a note to pastors on what I believe about this, but everybody knows what I believe about it, and they heard me at the civil forum when I asked both Obama and McCain on their views.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

regarding California Proposition 8 to amend the state constitution to not recognize same-sex marriage, as quoted in "News & Views 10/23/2008 Part 3 (Prop 8)" in Pastor Rick's News and Views (23 October 2008) http://www.saddleback.com/blogs/newsandviews/index.html?contentid=1502

T. E. Lawrence photo
Wu Den-yih photo

“We should rebuild a just and harmonious society, where amicability exists between labor and capital, the younger and older generations, men and women, as well as concerned parties in the recent debates about legalizing same-sex marriage.”

Wu Den-yih (1948) Taiwanese politician

Wu Den-yih (2017) cited in: " Wu pledges just governance if elected http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2017/01/10/2003662833" in Taipei Times, 10 January 2017.

William Blake photo
Kent Hovind photo
Mike Huckabee photo
Hsu Tzong-li photo
Susan B. Anthony photo
Ron Paul photo
Saki photo

“Sophie Chattel-Monkheim was a Socialist by conviction and a Chattel-Monkheim by marriage.”

"The Byzantine Omelette"
Beasts and Super-Beasts (1914)

Orson Hyde photo
Wang Ju-hsuan photo

“Beijing's marriage and inheritance laws are closely related to Taiwanese lives, since numerous Taiwanese businessmen have purchased properties or taken a mistress in (Mainland) China. I have also been approached by many Taiwanese wives who needed legal advice in these areas.”

Wang Ju-hsuan (1961) Taiwanese politician

Wang Ju-hsuan (2015) cited in " Jennifer Wang’s Chinese degree stirs speculation http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2015/12/02/2003633814" on Taipei Times, 2 December 2015.

Wilfred Thesiger photo
Trinny Woodall photo

“I think it's great that it's caused a reaction. But at the same time I think the people who are criticising us haven't really watched the show. We are not claiming to be marriage guidance people, or anything.”

Trinny Woodall (1964) English fashion advisor and designer, television presenter and author

As quoted in "MEN reader meets Trinny and Susannah" by Helen Tither in Manchester Evening News http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/lifestyle/health_and_beauty/style/s/225/225048_men_reader_meets_trinny_and_susannah.html (9 October 2006)

Richard Burton photo
George Eliot photo
Warren Farrell photo
Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Ann Coulter photo

“Out of respect for my gay male readers, I'll resist the temptation to characterize this ruling as "shoving gay marriage down our throats."”

Ann Coulter (1961) author, political commentator

Massachusetts Supreme Court abolishes capitalism!
2003-12-04
Townhall
http://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2003/12/04/massachusetts_supreme_court_abolishes_capitalism!/page/full/
2003

“Being a part of a political party is something like being a partner in a marriage - work at it and stay loyal to it, and when you can't stomach it any longer, leave it.”

Judy LaMarsh (1924–1980) Canadian politician, writer, broadcaster and barrister.

Source: Memoirs Of A Bird In A Gilded Cage (1969), CHAPTER 3, The truth squad, p. 37

Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge photo
Wallace Stevens photo
Sarah Grimké photo
Samuel Johnson photo
Julius Streicher photo
Piero Scaruffi photo
Jonathan Sacks photo

“Marriage, sanctified by the bond of fidelity, is the nearest life gets to a work of art.”

Jonathan Sacks (1948) British rabbi

Source: From Optimism to Hope (2004), p. 69

Jules Sandeau photo

“Marriage is a diner that begins with dessert.”

Jules Sandeau (1811–1883) French writer

Source: Frans romanschrijver, geboren Léonard Sylvani Julien,

Helen Rowland photo

“France may claim the happiest marriages in the world, but the happiest divorces in the world are "made in America."”

Helen Rowland (1875–1950) American journalist

Variations
A Guide to Men (1922)

Lucy Stone photo

“Fifty years ago the legal injustice imposed upon women was appalling. Wives, widows and mothers seemed to have been hunted out by the law on purpose to see in how many ways they could be wronged and made helpless. A wife by her marriage lost all right to any personal property she might have. The income of her land went to her husband, so that she was made absolutely penniless. If a woman earned a dollar by scrubbing, her husband had a right to take the dollar and go and get drunk with it and beat her afterwards. It was his dollar. If a woman wrote a book the copyright of the same belonged to her husband and not to her. The law counted out in many states how many cups and saucers, spoons and knives and chairs a widow might have when her husband died. I have seen many a widow who took the cups she had bought before she was married and bought them again after her husband died, so as to have them legally. The law gave no right to a married woman to any legal existence at all. Her legal existence was suspended during marriage. She could neither sue nor be sued. If she had a child born alive the law gave her husband the use of all her real estate as long as he should live, and called it by the pleasant name of "the estate by courtesy."”

Lucy Stone (1818–1893) American abolitionist and suffragist

When the husband died the law gave the widow the use of one-third of the real estate belonging to him, and it was called the "widow's encumbrance."
The Progress of Fifty Years (1893)

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Siddharth Katragadda photo

“Lovers forget that after marriage and kids, it's no longer a 'relationship”

Siddharth Katragadda (1972) Indian writer

It's a family.
page 16
The Other Wife (2003)

Aisha photo

“Narrated 'Aisha: I asked the Prophet, "O Allah's Messenger! Should the women be asked for their consent to their marriage?" He said, "Yes." I said, "A virgin, if asked, feels shy and keeps quiet."”

Aisha (605–678) Muhammad's wife

He said, "Her silence means her consent."
Sahih Bukhari, 9:85:79 https://sunnah.com/bukhari/89/7

Thomas Robert Malthus photo
Peter Akinola photo
John Barrowman photo

“Two men as two women and as a man and a woman can have a loving relationship and make a commitment. And that's what marriage is about.”

John Barrowman (1967) Scottish-American actor, singer, dancer, musical theatre performer, writer and television personality

Fern Britton Meets John Barrowman BBC 2012

Charles Lamb photo

“Severe and saintly righteousness
Composed the clear white bridal dress;
Jesus, the Son of Heaven's high King
Bought with his blood the marriage ring”

Charles Lamb (1775–1834) English essayist

A Vision Of Repentance, as quoted in Works of Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb.

Henrik Ibsen photo
Bruce Jenner photo

“Gay marriage… I'm a traditionalist. I'm older than most people in the audience. I kind of like tradition, and it's always been a man and a woman. I'm thinking, 'I don't quite get it.”

Bruce Jenner (1949) American reality television personality and retired Olympic decathlete champion

On The Ellen Degeneres Show http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2016/02/19/caitlyn-jenner-have-gotten-more-flack-for-being-republican-than-have-for-being/.

Muhammad bin Tughluq photo
Chuck Palahniuk photo
Nick Griffin photo
Margaret Fuller photo
Gerald of Wales photo

“I have thought it relevant to include here an exemplum found in the answer which Richard, King of the English, made to Fulk, a virtuous and holy man…This saintly man had been talking to the King for some time. "You have three daughters," he said, "and, as long as they remain with you, you will never receive the grace of God. Their names are Superbia, Luxuria nd Cupiditas." For a moment the King did not know what to answer. Then he replied: "I have already given these daughters of mine away in marriage. Pride I gave to the Templars, Lechery I gave to the Black Monks and Covetousness to the White Monks."”
Exemplum autem de responso Ricardi regis Anglorum, facto magistro Fulconi viro bono et sancto…et hic interserere praeter rem non putavi. Cum inter cetera vir ille sanctus regi dixisset; "Tres filias habetis, quae quamdiu penes vos fuerint, nunquam Dei gratiam habere poteritis, superbiam scilicet, luxuriam, et cupiditatem." Cui rex, post modicam quasi pausationem, "Jam," inquit, "maritavi filias istas, et nuptui dedi; Templariis superbiam, nigris monachis luxuriam, albis vero cupiditatem."

Gerald of Wales (1146) Medieval clergyman and historian

Exemplum autem de responso Ricardi regis Anglorum, facto magistro Fulconi viro bono et sancto…et hic interserere praeter rem non putavi. Cum inter cetera vir ille sanctus regi dixisset; "Tres filias habetis, quae quamdiu penes vos fuerint, nunquam Dei gratiam habere poteritis, superbiam scilicet, luxuriam, et cupiditatem."
Cui rex, post modicam quasi pausationem, "Jam," inquit, "maritavi filias istas, et nuptui dedi; Templariis superbiam, nigris monachis luxuriam, albis vero cupiditatem."
Book 1, chapter 3, pp. 104-5.
Itinerarium Cambriae (The Journey Through Wales) (1191)

Lucinda Creighton photo

“I think marriage is primarily about children, main purpose being to propagate & create environment for children to grow up. Its a good policy for society to support male/female marriage imo.”

Lucinda Creighton (1980) Irish politician

Creighton's comments on Twitter opposing same-sex marriage caused uproar across Ireland, particularly as she was the party's equality spokeswoman at this time. Gaelick http://www.gaelick.com/2012/02/sligo-lgbt-soc-protests-against-lucinda-creighton-with-marriage-ceremony/22059/.

George W. Bush photo

“Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society. Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Radio Address (June 3, 2006); quoted in "Bush, senators renew fight against gay marriage" at CNN.com (June 5, 2006) http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/05/same.sex.marriage.ap/index.html
2000s, 2006

Jonathan Swift photo

“The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get out, and such as are out wish to get in?”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Montaigne; or, The Skeptic
1850s, Representative Men (1850)

Gloria Estefan photo
Matilda Joslyn Gage photo
Katy Perry photo

“I was like, I don't know if I can hold that promise [to wait until marriage to have sex] because this guy at camp is really cute. Sex wasn't talked about in my home, but I was a very curious young girl.”

Katy Perry (1984) American singer, songwriter and actress

On her upbringing as the daughter of born-again Christian pastors.
Cosmopolitan magazine (2009)

Sydney Smith photo

“Marriage resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they can not be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them.”

Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman

Lady Holland's Memoir (1855) Vol. I, ch. 11, p. 415
Variant: Marriage resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they can not be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them.

John Selden photo

“Of all actions of a man's life his marriage does least concern other people, yet of all actions of our life 'tis most meddled with by other people.”

John Selden (1584–1654) English jurist and scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution, and of Jewish law

Marriage.
Table Talk (1689)

David Vitter photo
Miguel de Unamuno photo

“There are pretenses which are very sincere, and marriage is their school.”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

Tres novelas ejemplares y un prólogo [Three Exemplary Novels and a Prologue] (1920); Two Mothers

Warren Farrell photo
Clint Eastwood photo

“There's only one way to have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn what it is I'll get married again.”

Clint Eastwood (1930) actor and director from the United States

Reported in Investor's Business Daily (April 9, 2001), A-4.

Richard Hooker photo

“There is a wheel within a wheel; a secret sacred wheel of Providence (most visible in marriages), guided by His hand that allows not the race to the swift nor bread to the wise, nor good wives to good men: and He that can bring good out of evil (for mortals are blind to this reason) only knows why this blessing was denied to patient Job, to meek Moses, and to our as meek and patient Mr Hooker.”

Richard Hooker (1554–1600) English bishop and Anglican Divine

Izaak Walton, in Philip B. Secor, Richard Hooker: Prophet of Anglicanism and Son of Exeter http://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/Clergy/Hooker.html. Walton (August 9, 1593 - December 15, 1683) was the chief biographer of Hooker.
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Warren Farrell photo
James Brown photo

“This is an issue couples have to be straight on and agree on before they walk down that aisle; otherwise there is no way their marriage will survive.”

James Brown (1933–2006) American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist

On having children — as quoted in Brown, J. & Eliot, M. (2005). I Feel Good: A Memoir of a Life of Soul, p. 248. New American Library: New York. ISBN 0-45121-393-9

Camille Paglia photo