Marriage

"Let the husband render to his wife the affection owed her, and likewise also the wife to her husband."

"The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband. And in like manner the husband also hath not power of his own body, but the wife."

"Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion."

"The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife."

"This particular doctrine, often expounded by the magisterium of the Church, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act. The reason is that the fundamental nature of the marriage act, while uniting husband and wife in the closest intimacy, also renders them capable of generating new life—and this as a result of laws written into the actual nature of man and of woman. And if each of these essential qualities, the unitive and the procreative, is preserved, the use of marriage fully retains its sense of true mutual love and its ordination to the supreme responsibility of parenthood to which man is called. We believe that our contemporaries are particularly capable of seeing that this teaching is in harmony with human reason."

"No woman marries for money: they are all clever enough, before marrying a millionaire, to fall in love with him."

"When a woman marries she belongs to another man; and when she belongs to another man there is nothing more you can say to her."

"Marriage may often be a stormy lake, but celibacy is almost always a muddy horsepond."

"Il matrimonio bisogna che sia un vero castigo, poichè fa diventar savi anche i matti."

"In all other marriages he prohibited dowries; the bride was to bring with her three changes of raiment, household stuff of small value, and nothing else. For he did not wish that marriage should be a matter of profit or price, but that man and wife should dwell together for the delights of love and the getting of children."

"Do not marry unbelieving women, until they believe: A slave woman who believes is better than an unbelieving woman, even though she allures you. Nor marry to unbelievers until they believe: A man slave who believes is better than an unbeliever, even though he allures you. Unbelievers do (but) beckon you to the Fire. But Allah beckons by His Grace to the Garden and forgiveness, and makes His Signs clear to mankind: That they may celebrate His praise."

"No fornicator will espouse but a fornicating woman or a polytheist woman; No fornicating woman will espouse but a fornicator or a polytheist: and those are forbidden for the believers."

"Unchaste women are destined for unchaste men, and unchaste men are destined for unchaste women and chaste women are destined for chaste men, and chaste men are destined for chaste women; these are not affected by what people say: there is forgiveness, and a honourable providence for them."

"We have already seen how the ideology of national honour derives from authoritarian ideology and the latter from the sex-negation regulation of sexuality. Neither Christianity nor National Socialism attacks the institution of compulsive marriage: for the former, apart from its function of procreation, marriage is a ‘complete, life-long union’; for the National Socialists it is a biologically rooted institution for the preservation of racial purity. Outside of compulsive marriage, there is no sexuality for either of them."

"Our culture has rejected the original premise of marriage, yet we wonder why our institutions do not make sense. Marriage was not historically about the happiness of the married couple but about the stability of the family unit, a legal means of tying the children to their biological mother and father. Of course, there have always been deaths, tragedies, and complex situations that meant children were not always born into the home of their biological parents. Adoption and infidelity are likely as old as the institution of marriage itself. Yet, until just recently, there was coherence in the marriage contract: Two people assumed responsibility for the children of that union."

"We got married: society’s solution to loneliness, lust and laundry."

"The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky."

"Cold disdain is the meat of marriage."

"A husband is what is left of a lover, after the nerve has been extracted."

"There is not infrequently, in marriage, a suggestion of purchase, of acquiring a woman on condition of keeping her in a certain standard of material comfort. Often and often, a marriage hardly differs from prostitution except by being harder to escape from."

"[C]hildren are what makes marriage important. But for children, there would be no need of any institution concerned with sex, but as soon as children enter in, the husband and wife, if they have any offspring, are compelled to realise that their feelings towards each other are no longer what is of most importance."

"It takes patience to appreciate domestic bliss; volatile spirits prefer unhappiness."

"Marrying means doing whatever possible to become repulsed of each other."

"Evidence of the destructiveness of unrealistic expectations can be found in the literature on cognition and marriage. For example, people who feel that their relationship standards (e.g., how alike they believe they should be, the degree to which they should engage in acts of caring and concern for each other) are unmet are more inclined to report more negative cognitive and affective reactions to marital problems (Baucom et al., 1996). Further, research on relationship beliefs indicates that idealistic and unrealistic beliefs, like “mind reading is expected” (partners who truly care about and know one another should be able to sense each other’s needs and preferences without overy communication), “sexual perfectionism” (one must be a “perfect” sexual partner) and “disagreement is destructive” (disagreements in marriage are a sign of impending doom) are positively associated with marital distress (eidelson & Epstein, 1982; Epstein & Eidelson, 1981) and negatively associated with the desire to maintain the relationship (Eidelson & Epstein, 1982)."

"If you shall marry, You give away this hand, and that is mine; You give away heaven's vows, and those are mine; You give away myself, which is known mine."

"Men are April when they woo, December when they wed; maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives."

"I will fasten on this sleeve of thine: Thou art an elm, my husband, I, a vine."

"Men's vows are women's traitors! All good seeming, By thy revolt, O husband, shall be thought Put on for villany; not born where 't grows, But worn a bait for ladies."

"Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, She married."

"The instances that second marriage move Are base respects of thrift, but none of love."

"God, the best maker of all marriages, Combine your hearts in one."

"He is the half part of a blessed man, Left to be finished by such as she; And she a fair divided excellence, Whose fulness of perfection lies in him."

"A world-without-end bargain."

"Hanging and wiving goes by destiny."

"As are those dulcet sounds in break of day That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear And summon him to marriage."

"Happiest of all, is, that her gentle spirit Commits itself to yours to be directed, As from her lord, her governor, her king."

"I will marry her, sir, at your request; but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance * * * I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt: I will marry her; that I am freely dissolved, and dissolutely."

"But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, Than that which with'ring on the virgin thorn Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness."

"I would not marry her, though she were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he transgressed: she would have made Hercules have turned spit, yea, and have cleft his club to make the fire too. * * * I would to God some scholar would conjure her; for certainly, while she is here, a man may live as quiet in hell as in a sanctuary."

"No, the world must be peopled. When I said, I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married."

"Let husbands know, Their wives have sense like them: they see, and smell, And have their palates both for sweet and sour, As husbands have."

"She is not well married that lives married long: But she's best married that dies married young."

"If she deny to wed, I'll crave the day When I shall ask the banns and when be married."

"Who wooed in haste, and means to wed at leisure."

"She shall watch all night: And if she chance to nod I'll rail and brawl And with the clamour keep her still awake. This is the way to kill a wife with kindness."

"Thy husband * * * commits his body To painful labour, both by sea and land, * * * * * * And craves no other tribute at thy hands, But love, fair looks, and true obedience; Too little payment for so great a debt."

"Let still the woman take An elder than herself: so wears she to him, So sways she level in her husband's heart: For, boy, however we do praise ourselves, Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn Than women's are."

"Then let thy love be younger than thyself, Or thy affection cannot hold the bent: For women are as roses, whose fair flower Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour."

"Now go with me and with this holy man Into the chantry by: there, before him, And underneath that consecrated roof, Plight me the full assurance of your faith."

"Even if you’re planning to get me married, that will also cost money! Just help me start my studies; I won’t be a burden on you."