„Malays abhor the state of celibacy. To remain unmarried was and is considered shameful. Everyone must be married at some time or other. The result is that whether a person is fit or unfit for marriage, he or she still marries and reproduces. An idiot or a simpleton is often married off to an old widower, ostensibly to take care of him in his old age. If this is not possible, backward relatives are paired off in marriage. These people survive, reproduce and propagate their species. The cumulative effect of this can be left to the imagination.“

„People are still encouraged to marry as if they could count on marriage being for life, and at the same time they are absorbing a knowledge of the great frequency of divorce.“

—  Margaret Mead American anthropologist 1901 - 1978

Source: 1940s, Male and Female (1949), p. 335

„I love being engaged, but I don’t really have a desire to get married, I always felt like marriage should be more of a reward… For surviving your relationship… I feel everyone’s got it backwards“

—  Liv Tyler American actress, producer and former model 1977

Liv Tyler is the October cover https://www.tatler.com/article/liv-tyler-october-2019-cover-star (August 30, 2019)

„The tragedy of marriage is that while all women marry thinking that their man will change, all men marry believing their wife will never change.“

—  Len Deighton, book London Match

London Match (London: Hutchinson, 1985) p. 18

„The gene code was still pure in Cain's time; there would be no defects in children from marrying close to the bloodline like there would be today. The average person today has about 3,500 defective genes, making close kin marriages dangerous to the offspring. Adam married his own rib!“

—  Kent Hovind American young Earth creationist 1953

Source: What On Earth Is About To Happen… For Heaven’s Sake? (2013), p. 52

„Why are there age limits? why is it illegal to marry a 12-year old?“

—  Piero Scaruffi Italian writer 1955

Context: Why are there age limits? why is it illegal to marry a 12-year old? Helen of Troy was 12. Juliet and Cleopatra were still teenagers when they became famous. Most heroines of classic novels and poems were underage by today's laws. Thomas Edison married a 16-year-old. Medical studies show that the best age for a woman to have children is between 15 and 25 (lowest chances of miscarriage, of birth defects and, last but not least, of the woman dying while giving birth); while the worst age is after the mid 30s. And the younger you are, the more likely you are to cement a real friendship with your children; the older you are, the more likely that the "generational gap" will hurt your children's psychology. Therefore it is much more natural to have a child at 16 than at 40.

„They are preserving the sanctity of marriage, so that two gay men who've been together for twenty-five years can't get married, but a guy can still get drunk in Vegas and marry a hooker at the Elvis chapel! The sanctity of marriage is saved!“

—  Lea DeLaria American actress and singer 1958

Box Lunch

„Even hooligans marry, though they know that marriage is for a little while. It is alimony that is for ever.“

—  Quentin Crisp, book The Naked Civil Servant

Source: The Naked Civil Servant (1968), Ch. 26

„I married him against all evidence. I married him believing that marriage doesn't work, that love dies, that passion fades, and in so doing I became the kind of romantic only a cynic is truly capable of being.“

—  Nora Ephron, book Heartburn

Source: Heartburn

„I revolted against this marriage of convenience, this marriage for money and wanted to marry only for love, out of a great passion.“

—  Alexandra Kollontai Soviet diplomat 1872 - 1952

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

„I'm not the marrying kind -"
St. Vincent snorted. "No man is. Marriage is a female invention.“

—  Lisa Kleypas American writer 1964

Source: Mine Till Midnight

„Each time he suggested they get married, she said no. They were too happy, precariously so, and she wanted to guard that bond; she feared that marriage would flatten it into a prosaic partnership.“

—  Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie, book Half of a Yellow Sun

Source: Half of a Yellow Sun

„What a queer work the Bible is.
… Some texts are very funny. Deut. XXIV, 5: "When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken." I should never have guessed "cheer up" was a Biblical expression. Here is another really inspiring text: "Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say, Amen." St Paul on marriage: "I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn." This has remained the doctrine of the Church to this day. It is clear that the Divine purpose in the text "it is better to marry than to burn" is to make us all feel how very dreadful the torments of Hell must be.“

—  Bertrand Russell logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist 1872 - 1970

Letter to Colette, August 10, 1918
1910s

„Let his name be cleared and everyone else adjust their thinking. He had put in time, now they must do the work. His business was simple. Find Cecilia and love her, marry her and live without shame.“

—  Ian McEwan, book Atonement

Source: Atonement

„"If you want to do something great in the world, do not get married, remain single… One may get married after he had accomplished something great in this world." Yet this great man who advised against marriage, was the happiest of men at the fireside of his family.“

—  Epifanio de los Santos Filipino politician 1871 - 1928

Views on marriage in The Manila Tribune. April 19, 1928.
BALIW

„The truth is, the notion that gay marriage is harmful to marriage, is sort of mind-boggling, because these are people trying to get married. But it seems to me, if you want to defend marriage against something, defend it against divorce.“

—  Cokie Roberts American journalist 1943 - 2019

Real Time with Bill Maher (6 August 2004)

„The most important problem for freedom in a social context is thus family and marriage. When the woman marries, she is in fact enslaved. It is impossible to imagine another institution that enslaves like marriage. The most profound slaveries are established by the institution of marriage, slaveries that become more entrenched within the family.“

—  Abdullah Öcalan Founder of the PKK 1949

The Political Thought of Abdullah Ocalan (2017), Liberating Life: Women's Revolution

„I thoroughly believe in the institution of marriage, but there's still a long way to go before I get married. Right now I want to concentrate on my career.“

—  Nedim Jahić Bosnian singer 2001

„My dad also survived five divorces, and the women he married cleaned his ass out every time.“

—  Christopher Titus actor, writer, podcaster 1964

I used to think my dad got divorced because he wanted new furniture. At one point in my life, all we had left was a wooden box, a 12" black-and-white TV, and a four-man rubber raft for a couch. And yet, I was the coolest kid in third grade. (imitating a kid): "Mom, can we have a sleepover in Christopher Titus' house? They have a raft in the living room! We can row to breakfast in the morning. I can actually be Captain Crunch!"
Norman Rockwell is Bleeding (2004)

„The happiness of a married man depends on the people he has not married.“

—  Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance

Source: A Woman of No Importance