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

— Jonathan Swift

Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)

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 "The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages." by Jonathan Swift?

Jonathan Swift 141

Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet 1667–1745

Related quotes

“Experienced well-being is on average unaffected by marriage, not because marriage makes no difference to happiness, but because it changes some aspects of life for the better and others for the worse.”

Daniel Kahneman book Thinking, Fast and Slow

Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), Chapter 38, "Thinking about life", pages 400-401 (ISBN 9780141033570).

“You have to be willing to spend time making things for no known reason.”

Lynda Barry (1956) Cartoonist

Source: Picture This: The Near-sighted Monkey Book

“Even newlyweds don't spend much time together, now that few marriages outlast the appliance warranties.”

P. J. O'Rourke (1947) American journalist

The Bachelor Home Companion (1986)

“Reason, Observation and Experience — the Holy Trinity of Science — have taught us that happiness is the only good; that the time to be happy is now, and the way to be happy is to make others so. This is enough for us.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

"The Gods" (1876) as published in The Gods and Other Lectures (1879); this was one of his earliest versions of what became known as his "Creed". Some variants:
Justice is the only worship.
Love is the only priest.
Ignorance is the only slavery.
Happiness is the only good.
The time to be happy is now,
The place to be happy is here,
The way to be happy is to make others so.
Wisdom is the science of happiness.
As quoted in Familiar Quotations (1937) edited by Christopher Morley, p. 603
Happiness is the only good.
The place to be happy is here.
The time to be happy is now.
The way to be happy is to make others so.
Variant, as it appears on a manuscript copy he jotted down for a fan (26 March 1897) 
Context: Reason, Observation and Experience — the Holy Trinity of Science — have taught us that happiness is the only good; that the time to be happy is now, and the way to be happy is to make others so. This is enough for us. In this belief we are content to live and die. If by any possibility the existence of a power superior to, and independent of, nature shall be demonstrated, there will then be time enough to kneel. Until then, let us stand erect.