“The only happy marriages I know are arranged ones.”

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

Source: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877), V
Context: A dream! What is a dream? And is not our life a dream? I will say more. Suppose that this paradise will never come to pass (that I understand), yet I shall go on preaching it. And yet how simple it is: in one day, in one hour everything could be arranged at once! The chief thing is to love others like yourself, that's the chief thing, and that's everything; nothing else is wanted — you will find out at once how to arrange it all. And yet it's an old truth which has been told and retold a billion times — but it has not formed part of our lives! The consciousness of life is higher than life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness is higher than happiness — that is what one must contend against. And I shall. If only everyone wants it, it can be arranged at once.

Source: Smooth Talking Stranger

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.

Source: Friday (1982), Chapter 6 (p. 49)

Original in French: Mon propos a toujours été modeste, je voulais transformer ce mariage de raison en un mariage d&#x27;amour. <br class="br">Cited at : Ferron, Marcelle; Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas 1983; Catégorie : Culturelle http://www.prixduquebec.gouv.qc.ca/recherche/desclaureat.php?noLaureat=183 at prixduquebec.gouv.qc.ca, 2012-10-29

p, 125
Man's Rise to Civilization (1968)