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Parents today are the stage managers for the meetings of three- and four-year-olds, just as, in earlier eras, the adults managed marriages.

— David Riesman The Lonely Crowd (1950)

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Marriage

More quotes by David Riesman

Etiquette can be at the same time a means of approaching people and of staying clear of them.

The Lonely Crowd (1950)

The idea that men are created free and equal is both true and misleading: men are created different; they lose their social freedom and their individual autonomy in seeking to become like each other.

The Lonely Crowd (1950)

The mass media are the wholesalers; the peer-groups, the retailers of the communications industry.

The Lonely Crowd (1950)

Those who are excluded from meaningful work are, by and large, excluded from meaningful play.

Individualism Reconsidered (1954)

Today the future occupation of all moppets is to be skilled consumers.

The Lonely Crowd (1950)

All David Riesman quotes →

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The confusion of marriage with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other single error.

George Bernard Shaw Man and Superman (1903)

Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious. Both are disappointed.

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance (1893)

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.

Samuel Johnson

The best way to worship God is to love your wife.

Victor Hugo Les Misérables (1862)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: David Riesman (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.