Marriage Quotes
The page is a long argument between people for marriage and people who found it funny, with Shakespeare supplying the most entries on both sides. George Bernard Shaw, in Man and Superman (1903), said the confusion of marriage with morality had done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other error. Victor Hugo, in Les Misérables, said the best way to worship God is to love your wife. Disraeli, in Lothair (1870), thought every woman should marry, and no man.
Two famous items are flagged as misattributed. “By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher” is credited to Socrates, but its origin is unknown. The exchange in which Lady Astor offers to poison Churchill’s coffee is credited to Churchill. Both are better as stories than as evidence.
Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious. Both are disappointed.
Marriage may often be a stormy lake, but celibacy is almost always a muddy horsepond.
Hail wedded love, mysterious law, true source
Of human offspring.
I have always thought that every woman should marry, and no man.
Marriage is the safe harbor men proffer from a tempest they themselves conjure into creation.
What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
There are three faithful friends,
an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.