"The common view of marriage as a primitive institution implies in the man more than arbitrary superiority, such as he exercised over the child, which still remained free. The woman's slavery was assumed to be for life."
Marriage quotes
Marriage
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Marriage quotes (page 35 of 96)
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"If common sense had been consulted, how many marriages would never have taken place; if uncommon or divine sense, how few marriages such as we witness would ever have taken place!"
"Men commonly couple with their idea of marriage a slight degree at least of sensuality; but every lover, the world over, believesin its inconceivable purity."
"One may be drunk with love without being any nearer to finding his mate."
"If it is the result of a pure love, there can be nothing sensual in marriage. Chastity is something positive, not negative. It isthe virtue of the married especially. All lusts or base pleasures must give place to loftier delights. They who meet as superior beings cannot perform the deeds of inferior ones."
"In a pure society, the subject of marriage would not be so often avoided,--from shame and not from reverence, winked out of sight,and hinted at only; but treated naturally and simply,--perhaps simply avoided like the kindred mysteries. If it cannot be spoken of for shame, how can it be acted of? But, doubtless, there is far more purity, as well as more impurity, than is apparent."
"The men that women marry, And why they marry them, will always be A marvel and a mystery to the world."
"Every relationship that does not raise us up pulls us down, and vice versa; this is why men usually sink down somewhat when they take wives while women are usually somewhat raised up. Overly spiritual men require marriage every bit as much as they resist it as bitter medicine."
"The quality of a marriage is proven by its ability to tolerate an occasional "exception."
"For the longest time, marriage has had a guilty conscience about itself. Should we believe it?--Yes, we should believe it."
"Marriages that made out of love (so-called "love-matches") have error as their father and misery (necessity) as their mother."
"If married couples did not live together, happy marriages would be more frequent."
"Most of the time in married life is taken up by talk."
"I would rather go to bed with Lillian Russell stark naked than Ulysses S Grant in full military regalia."
"My advice to girls: first, don't smoke - to excess; second, don't drink - to excess; third, don't marry - to excess."
"I consider a country-dance as an emblem of marriage. Fidelity and complaisance are the principle duties of both; and those men who do not choose to dance or to marry them selves, have no business with the partners or wives of the neighbors."
"A man would always wish to give a woman a better home than the one he takes her from; and he who can do it, where there is no doubt of her regard, must, I think, be the happiest of mortals."
"Lady Sondes' match surprises, but does not offend me; had her first marriage been of affection, or had their been a grown-updaughter, I should not have forgiven her; but I consider everybody as having a right to marry once in their lives for love, if they can."
"Are we not also married to conscience which we would love to get rid of often enough since it is more bothersome than a man or a woman ever could become?"
"When married one has to get into an argument once in a while since in this way one learns about the other."