“The proper basis for marriage is a mutual misunderstanding.”

—  Oscar Wilde, book Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories

Source: Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The proper basis for marriage is a mutual misunderstanding." by Oscar Wilde?
Oscar Wilde photo
Oscar Wilde812
Irish writer and poet 1854–1900

Related quotes

Henry James photo

“There's no more usual basis of union than a mutual misunderstanding.”

Henry James book The Portrait of a Lady

Source: The Portrait of a Lady (1881), Ch. XV.

Jean de La Bruyère photo

“Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.”

Jean de La Bruyère book Les Caractères

[I]l semble que le mariage met tout le monde dans son ordre.
Aphorism 25
Les Caractères (1688), Du mérite personnel

Frederick Douglass photo

“The principle must rest upon its own proper basis.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

1880s, Plea for Free Speech in Boston (1880)

Ranil Wickremesinghe photo

“The Indian ocean is in need of a mutually benefiting security architecture established on a multilateral basis”

Ranil Wickremesinghe (1949) Former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka was wiling to take the lead in forming a multilateral forum with UN support to ensure the maritime security of the Indian Ocean, quoted on The Economic Times: India, "Sri Lanka willing to set up forum to secure Indian Ocean: PM Ranil Wickremesinghe" http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/sri-lanka-willing-to-set-up-forum-to-secure-indian-ocean-pm-ranil-wickremesinghe/articleshow/49898118.cms, November 23, 2015.

Susan Sontag photo

“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

Jürgen Habermas photo

“Reaching and understanding is the process of bringing about an agreement on the presupposed basis of validity claims that are mutually recognized.”

Jürgen Habermas (1929) German sociologist and philosopher

Source: On the Pragmatics of Communication, 1998, p. 23

Immanuel Kant photo

“Marriage… is the union of two people of different sexes with a view to the mutual possession of each other's sexual attributes for the duration of their lives.”

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher

Samuel Richardson photo

“Marriage is the highest state of friendship. If happy, it lessens our cares by dividing them, at the same time that it doubles our pleasures by mutual participation.”

Samuel Richardson (1689–1761) English writer and printer

Oscar Wilde photo

“Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation, and conversation must have a common basis, and between two people of widely different culture the only common basis possible is the lowest level.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Oscar Wilde photo

“Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life. Mothers are different. Mothers are darlings.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Lord Goring, Act IV
An Ideal Husband (1895)

Related topics