“Marriage, n. The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress and two slaves, making in all, two.”

—  Ambrose Bierce, book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Marriage, n. The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress and two slaves, making in all, tw…" by Ambrose Bierce?
Ambrose Bierce photo
Ambrose Bierce204
American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabu… 1842–1914

Related quotes

Ruth Bader Ginsburg photo

“You're saying, no, State said two kinds of marriage: the full marriage, and then this sort of skim-milk marriage.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

United States v. Windsor oral argument,

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

John Adams photo

“Virtue is the mistress of all things. Virtue is the master of all things.”

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

(6 August 1796)
1750s, Diaries (1750s-1790s)
Context: Omnium rerum domina, virtus. Virtue is the mistress of all things. Virtue is the master of all things. Therefore a nation that should never do wrong must necessarily govern the world. The might of virtue, the power of virtue, is not a very common topic, not so common as it should be.

William Congreve photo

“Though marriage makes man and wife one flesh, it leaves 'em still two fools.”

William Congreve The Double Dealer

Act II, scene iii
The Double Dealer (1694)

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo

“The relationship between the brain and the body is similar to that of a master and a slave. There is a lack of effective communication.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“The population of Athens and ns, imported from the coasts of the Propontis…. They were employed for domestic purposes, or were let out for hire in gangs as labourers, or were allowed to work by themselves paying a yearly royalty to their masters.
… hardly any Athenian citizen can have been without two or three. The family of Aeschines (consisting of 6 persons) was considered very poor because it possessed only 7 slaves. On the other hand, Plutarch says that let out 1,000 and Hipponicus 600 slaves to work the gold mines in Thrace. The state possessed some slaves of its own, who were employed chiefly as policemen and clerks.
Slaves enjoyed considerable liberties in Athens, and had some rights, even against their masters. They did not serve as soldiers, or sailors, except when the city was in great straits, as at the battle of Arginussae… The worst prospect in store for them was that their masters might be engaged in a lawsuit, for the evidence of a slave (except in a few cases) was not admitted in a court of justice unless he had been put to torture.
Slaves were sometimes freed by their masters, with some sort of public ceremony, or (for great services) by the state which paid their value to their masters.”

James Gow (scholar) (1854–1923) scholar

p, 125
A Companion to School Classics (1888)

“Such mistress, such Nan,
Such master, such man.”

Thomas Tusser (1524–1580) English poet

"April's Abstract". Comment: M. Cimber of the Bibliothèque Royale ascribes this proverb to Chevalier Bayard: “Tel maître, tel valet.”
A Hundred Points of Good Husbandry (1557)

Ruth Bell Graham photo

“A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.”

Ruth Bell Graham (1920–2007) Congressional Gold Medal recipient

Nicolás Gómez Dávila photo

“The criterion of "progress" between two cultures or two eras consists of a greater capacity to kill.”

Nicolás Gómez Dávila (1913–1994) Colombian writer and philosopher

Sucesivos Escolios a un Texto Implícito (1992)

Lysander Spooner photo

“The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men, as to which of them shall be masters, and which of them slaves; a contest, that—however bloody—can, in the nature of things, never be finally closed, so long as man refuses to be a slave.”

Lysander Spooner book No Treason

Source: No Treason (1867–1870), No. I, p. 9

Related topics