Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Quotes: Marriage.

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Marriage
Husbands sometimes hate their wives because of the wrongs the husbands have done to them.
Marriage 334 I have been vexed to see husbands hate their wives only because they themselves do them wrong. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

In Egypt, men stay home and the wives work.
Marriage 99 Oedipus: [of his sons] For there [Egypt] the men sit at home and weave while their wives go out to win the daily bread. Sophocles. Oedipus at Colonus.

A single man with a fortune must need a wife.
Marriage 3 It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice.

In Jane Austen’s time, marriage was the only escape from poverty and chance for happiness for a woman with little money.
Marriage 122 Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her [Charlotte Lucas’s] object; it was the only honorable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice.

For women, marriage is a chance for a new purpose in life, a new future and a new identity.
Marriage 56 Marriage has for women many equivalents of joining a mass movement …offers a new purpose in life, a new future, and a new identity (a new name). Hoffer, The True Believer

If a woman doubts when asked to marry, she should say no.
Marriage 52 Emma: I lay it down as a general rule, Harriet, that if a woman doubts as to whether she should accept a man or not, she certainly ought to refuse him; if she can hesitate as to ‘Yes,’ she ought to say ‘No’ directly...but do not imagine that I want to influence you. Austen, Emma

A woman should not marry just because he has asked her, likes her and can write a tolerable letter.
Marriage 54 Emma: A woman is not to marry a man merely because she is asked, or because he is attached to her, and can write a tolerable letter. Austen, Emma

Why should he marry when he has his farm, sheep, library and manages his entire parish?
Marriage 225 Why should he [Mr. Knightley] marry?--He’s as happy as possible by himself; with his farm, and his sheep, and his library, and all the parish to manage. Austen, Emma

If a man chooses a wife when young, 23, it is usually a mistake.
Marriage 428 Mr. Knightley: So early in life—at three and twenty—a period when, if a man chooses a wife, he generally chooses ill. Austen, Emma

In spite of the doubts of all those who witnessed the ceremony, the union was perfectly happy.
Marriage 484 But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union. Austen, Emma

He sat in front of the fire with a handkerchief over his head, his feet on the fender and drinking his end-of-the-day wine.
Marriage 355 “Indeed, my love, he paid Teresa very great attention”…said Mrs. Malderton, addressing her spouse, who, after the fatigues of the day in the city was sitting with a silk handkerchief over his head, and his feet on the fender, drinking his port…. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

Marriage will put an end to whatever dreams you have.
Marriage 548 You [ladies] have but a very few years to be young and handsome in the eyes of the world; and as few months to be so in the eyes of a husband…for I hope you do not still dream of charms and raptures, which marriage ever did, and ever will, put a sudden end to. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

Being married and alone with each other much of the time would suggest that people could learn to get along together, but one runs into many contradictory couples.
Marriage 568 One would suppose that two people who are to pass their whole lives together, and must necessarily be very often alone with each other, could find little pleasure in mutual contradictions; and yet what is more common than a contradictory couple? Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

Married couples almost always argue about trifles.
Marriage 571 [The contradictory couple] …never quarrel except about trifles. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

While eating the pudding, he nudged his friend to notice the child’s eyes, chin, nose, hair, figure, calves, mouth or head.
Marriage 575 [The couple who dote on their children]: While the pudding is being disposed of, Mr. and Mrs. Whiffler look on with beaming countenance, and Mr. Whiffler nudging his friend Saunders, begs him to take notice of Tom’s eyes, or Dick’s chin, or Ned’s nose, or Mary Anne’s hair, or Emily’s figure, or little Bob’s calves, or Fanny’s mouth, or Carry’s head as the case may be. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

Married couples call each other “dearest” and “darling,” etc.
Marriage 581 The plausible gentleman calls his wife “darling” and the plausible lady addresses him as “dearest” …if it be Mr. and Mrs. Bobtail Widger, Mrs. Widger is “Lavinia, darling,” and Mr. Widger is “Bobtail, dearest.” Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

Marriage without love means love without marriage.
Marriage 64 Medieval marriages were entirely a matter of property, and, as everybody knows, marriage without love means love without marriage. Clark, Civilization.

Marriage is arduous communism.
Marriage 8 …the arduous communism of marriage…. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Aristotle.

Marriage is for the perpetuation of the species, not for the pleasure of the individual.
Marriage 319 Schopenhauer : …no unions are so unhappy as…love marriages—and precisely for the reason that their aim is the perpetuation of the species, and not the pleasure of the individual. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Schopenhauer.

If you marry for love, you will live in sorrow.
Marriage 319 Schopenhauer : Spanish proverb: He who marries from love must live in sorrow. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Schopenhauer.

Marriage is disillusioning and eventually destroys love.
Marriage 319 Schopenhauer : …marriage is the attrition of love, and must be disillusioning. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Schopenhauer.

Marriage fulfills women and empties men.
Marriage 433 Nietzsche: Marriage...fulfillment of the woman and its narrowing and emptying of the man. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Nietzsche.

The astonishing thing about marriage is that many endure.
Marriage 3 The really astounding thing about marriage is not that it so often goes to smash, but that it so often endures. Mencken, Minority Report.

Marriage is a natural condition that allows men to have careers and forbids women to have careers.
Marriage 329 Nan: Of course I know being married isn’t a trade: It is a natural condition of life, which permits a man to follow certain public careers and forbids them to a woman. Jewett, A Country Doctor.

Being a wife will deprive me of the opportunity to do what nature fitted me for.
Marriage 351 351 Nan: If I had heard he [George Gerry] had gone to the other side of the world for years and years, I should be glad now and not sorry; but I can look forward and see something a thousand times better than being his wife, and living here in Dunport keeping his house, and trying to forget all that nature fitted me to do. Jewett, A Country Doctor.

I will always be your friend, but if I married you, I will eventually seem to be your enemy.
Marriage 354 Nan to George Gerry: I will always be your friend, but if I married you I might seem by and by to be your enemy. Jewett, A Country Doctor.

I could not marry and give my whole self; there are other things I want to do.
Marriage 355 Nan: But something tells me all the time that I could not marry the whole of myself as most women can; there is a great share of my life which could not have its way, and could only hide itself and be sorry. Jewett, A Country Doctor.

Marriage is miserable when the only conversation concerns whether the meat should be boiled or roasted and probably a dispute about that.
Marriage 394 Johnson: It [marriage] was a miserable thing when the conversation could only be such as whether the mutton should be boiled or roasted, and probably a dispute about that. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.

Marriages would be happier if they were arranged by the Lord Chancellor who would consider the character and the circumstances and if the parties had nothing to say in the matter.
Marriage 627 Johnson: I believe marriages would in general be as happy, and often more so, if they were all made by the Lord Chancellor, upon a due consideration of the characters and circumstances, without the parties having any choice in the matter. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.

He expected his wife to be uncritical and in awe of him; in fact he saw her as a spy.
Marriage 195 And this cruel outward accuser was there in the shape of a wife—nay, of a young bride, who, instead of observing his abundant pen scratches and amplitude of paper with the uncritical awe of an elegant-minded canary-bird, seemed to present herself as a spy watching everything with a malign power of inference. George Eliot, Middlemarch.

She was his wife, but also the personification of critics of unappreciated authors.
Marriage 195 Dorothea was not only his wife: she was a personification of that shallow world which surrounds the ill-appreciated or desponding author. George Eliot, Middlemarch.

Young, inexperienced people may think of marriage as a perpetual holiday, but it soon turns into a work day.
Marriage 248 Young folks may get fond of each other before they know what life is, and they may think it all holiday if they can only get together; but it soon turns into working day…. George Eliot, Middlemarch.

Going on a honeymoon is nonsense; they get tired of each other and can’t comfortably argue as they would at home.
Marriage 267 Mrs. Cadwallader says it is nonsense, people going on a long journey when they are married…says they get tired to death of each other and can’t quarrel comfortably as they would at home. George Eliot, Middlemarch.

It’s not a marriage; it’s a virgin-sacrifice.
Marriage 347 Ladislaw on Dorothea’s marriage to Casaubon: “It is the most horrible of virgin-sacrifices.” George Eliot, Middlemarch.

The young creature who had worshipped him before marriage had become a critic.
Marriage 402 Poor Mr. Casaubon! This suffering was the harder to bear because it seemed like a betrayal: the young creature who had worshipped him with perfect trust had quickly turned into the critical wife; and early instances of criticism and resentment had made an impression which no tenderness and submission afterwards could remove. George Eliot, Middlemarch.

Men want a perfect woman who will reverence her husband’s mind.
Marriage 555 ...marking how far he had traveled from his old dreamland, in which Rosamond Vincy appeared to be that perfect piece of womanhood who would reverence her husband’s mind.... George Eliot, Middlemarch.

Marriage demands self-suppression and tolerance.
Marriage 716 716 …for Rosamond’s discontent in her marriage was due to the conditions of marriage itself, to its demand for self-suppression and tolerance…. George Eliot, Middlemarch.

He called his wife his basil because it was a plant that flourished on a murdered man’s brains.
Marriage 792 [Lydgate] had once called her [Rosamond] his basil plant; and when she asked for an explanation, said that basil was a plant which had flourished wonderfully on a murdered man’s brains [to which] Rosamond had a placid but strong answer[:] Why then had he chosen her…pity he had not had Mrs. Ladislaw, whom he was always praising, and placing above her…conversation ended with the advantage on Rosamond’s side. George Eliot, Middlemarch.

Whether you marry or not you will repent it.
Marriage 331 Socrates, when asked whether it was better to take or not to take a wife, replied, “Whichever a man does, he will repent it.” Montaigne, Selected Essays.

Marriage cures love.
Marriage 334 I have seen in my time…love shamefully and dishonorably cured by marriage. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

The Senate gave a man permission to kill himself to free himself from his squally wife.
Marriage 355 The Senate of Marseilles was right to grant the request of the man who asked permission to kill himself so that he might be delivered from his squally wife. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

A happy marriage consists of a blind wife and a deaf husband.
Marriage 355 That was, to my mind, an understanding fellow who said that a happy marriage was formed of a blind wife and a deaf husband. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

Browning and Elizabeth Barrett symbolize both individuality and union.
Marriage 953 …Harriet Hosmer’s clasped hands of Browning and his wife symbolizing the individuality and heroic union of two poetic lives. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.

Don’t marry until you have accomplished all you are capable of doing and until you see your intended as she really is or you will make a terrible mistake.
Marriage 30 …don’t marry until you can say to yourself that you have done all you are capable of doing, and until you cease to love the woman of your choice and see her plainly, as she really is; or else you will be making a cruel and irreparable mistake. Tolstoi, War and Peace.

I would never marry anyone who would be block-headed enough to marry me.
Marriage 111 Lincoln: I have now come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying; and for this reason; I can never be satisfied with any one who would block-head enough to have me. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years

Marriage is the process of going through so much to learn so little.
Marriage 372 “Wen you’re a married man, Samival, you’ll understand a good many things as you don’t understand now; but vether it’s worth while goin’ through so much, to learn so little...is a matter of taste...I rayther think it isn’t.” Dickens, Pickwick.

No comments:

Post a Comment