Interpersonal Relationships

"How vast, how extensive the boundary of your company the magnificence of your affection."

"Not for the body, but for the heart; companion and company are needed."

"How is it less or worse That it shall hold companionship in peace With honour, as in war?"

"Nullius boni sine sociis jucunda possessio est."

"Ante, inquit, circumspiciendum est, cum quibos edas et bibas, quam quid edas et bibas."

"Male voli solatii genus est turbu miserorum."

"The same thing has been said by all whom Prometheus has formed out of better clay. What pleasure could they find in the company of people with whom their only common ground is just what is lowest and least noble in their own nature—the part of them that is commonplace, trivial and vulgar? What do they want with people who cannot rise to a higher level, and for whom nothing remains but to drag others down to theirs?"

"How can you have confidence in a woman who will not risk entrusting her whole life to you, day and night?"

"It is stupid to grieve for the loss of a girl friend: you might never have met her, so you can do without her."

"The right hands of fellowship."

"On se forme l’esprit et le sentiment par les conversations. On se gâte l’esprit et le sentiment par les conversations. Ainsi les bonnes ou les mauvaises le forment ou le gâtent. Il importe donc de tout de les savoir choisir pour se le former et ne le point gâter; et on ne peut faire ce choix, si on ne l’a déjà formé et point gâté. Ainsi cela fait un cercle, d’où sont bienheureux ceux qui sortent."

"Two i's company, three i's trumpery."

"It is a comfort to the miserable to have comrades in misfortune, but it is a poor comfort after all."

"The First Truth is an assertion that all manifested life is sorrow, unless man knows how to live it... the Cause of Sorrow is always desire. If a man has no desires, if he is not striving for place or power or wealth, then he is equally tranquil whether the wealth or position comes or whether it goes. He remains unruffled and serene.... Being human, he will of course wish for this or that, but always mildly and gently, so that he does not allow himself to be disturbed... How often, for example, a young man desires affection from someone who cannot give it to him, who has it not to give! From such a desire as that comes often a great deal of sadness, jealousy and much other ill-feeling. You will say that such a desire is natural; undoubtedly it is, and affection which is returned is a great source of happiness. Yet if it cannot be returned, a man should have the strength to accept the situation, and not allow sorrow to be caused by the unsatisfied desire."

"Joy is a partnership, Grief weeps alone, Many guests had Cana; Gethsemane but one."

"It takes two for a kiss Only one for a sigh, Twain by twain we marry One by one we die."

"Do not keep company with young people and strangers. Do not fawn upon the rich, and do not be fond of mingling with the great. Associate with the humble and the simple, with the devout and virtuous, and with them speak of edifying things."

"Bishop Jeremy Taylor is clear, that men will find it impossible to do anything greatly good, unless they cut off all superfluous company and visits."

"Better your room than your company."

"Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris."

"I couldn't advise others to try such a long distance marriage, but for us it works perfectly. We are three thousand miles apart, it is true, but the big thing is that we each have our careers without interference from the other. My husband can't leave his practice and I can't leave Hollywood, but neither of us has any thought of giving up either the career or each other. Some day we shall again live in our 'honeymoon' apartment - but in the meantime, for us, this is the best possible way."

"We are in the same boat."

"Pares autem vetere proverbio, cum paribus facillime congregantur."

"Tell me thy company and I will tell thee what thou art."

"Ah, savage company; but in the church With saints, and in the taverns with the gluttons."

"Science, when applied to personal relationships, is always just wrong."

"These qualities or skills are so well known that the list may even seem banal at first glance. Knowing what’s on the list is of no great consequence. It is having the skills and being able to apply them, having practised and internalised them, which makes a difference. And the difference which can be made is not at all banal, it is magnificent. It is the difference between living happily and just existing."

"Interpersonal relationship"

"Companionship"

"Friendship"

"[W]e shall continue to do it until God tell us to stop, or until we pass into sin and iniquity, which will never be."

"Just ask yourselves, historians, when was monogamy introduced on to the face of the earth? When those buccaneers, who settled on the peninsula where Rome now stands, could not steal women enough to have two or three apiece, they passed a law that a man should have but one woman. And this started monogamy and the downfall of the plurality system. In the days of Jesus, Rome, having dominion over Jerusalem, they carried out the doctrine more or less. This was the rise, start and foundation of the doctrine of monogamy; and never till then was there a law passed, that we have any knowledge of, that a man should have but one wife."

"[I]f you have in your hearts to say…”we will not, therefore, be polygamists lest we should fail in obtaining some earthly honor, character and office, etc,"-the man that has that in his heart, and will continue to persist in pursuing that policy, will come short of dwelling in the presence of the Father and the Son, in celestial glory. The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy. Others attain unto a glory and may even be permitted to come into the presence of the Father and the Son; but they cannot reign as kings in glory, because they had blessing offered unto them, and they refused to accept them. The Lord gave a revelation through Joseph Smith, His servant; and we have believed and practiced it."

"This is the reason why the doctrine of plurality of wives was revealed, that the noble spirits who are waiting for tabernacles might be brought forth"

"I will now say, not only to our delegate to Congress, but to the Elders who leave the body of the Church, that he thought that all the cats and kittens were let out of the bag when brother Pratt went back last fall, and published the Revelation concerning the plurality of wives: it was thought there was no other cat to let out. But allow me to tell you, Elders of Israel, and delegates to Congress, you may expect an eternity of cats, that have not yet escaped from the bag. Bless your souls, there is no end to them, for if there is not one thing, there will always be another."

"We have laws in states, like the one at the Supreme Court right now, that has sodomy laws and they were there for a purpose. Because, again, I would argue, they undermine the basic tenets of our society and the family. And if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our society? I would argue yes, it does."

"So then if, while her husband is living she marries another man, she shall be called an adulteress, but if her husband has died, she is free from that law, so that she is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man."

"I do not believe that in Egypt we can prohibit it [polygamy] by law....Polygamy cannot be prevented by force, but through education."

"As far as polygamy goes, it never works out. It’s first and foremost a way to subjugate women. No woman can have any worth because value is dictated by the husband, so she has no inherent value."

"“Some women are afforded autonomy in polygamy, but it’s at the expense of other women having to live in complete servitude,” says Cora. “And not a single woman I've ever known is happy even though they all say they are. And believe me, a lot of them confided in me.”"

"Her diagnosis was a cancerous brain tumor requiring chemotherapy….Because a pregnancy would aggravate her fragile medical condition, the doctor ordered Abby not to have been any more children. But polygamist women are to have a child per year so she had three more babies. The last one she delivered while dying—unconscious, without knowing she had given birth."

"Perhaps no one else has seen and lived through more of the inner workings and daily lives of as many varied Mormon fundamentalist polygamist groups as Laura Chapman. Based on her firsthand experiences and observations, there is one message above all that she wants to convey about living in polygamy: incest, statutory rape, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, deprivation of education and forced marriages of young girls are endemic to all of the polygamist communities and not, as some have proclaimed, no worse than in the general monogamous population or isolated to only a few polygamous groups."

"“It’s the sickest way of living ever; and women do it for a ticket to heaven, thinking the hell they live now is worth it,”she says. “I look back and recognize the signs of a cult: fear and the parade of ‘how happy people are’ bullshit. They’re conditioned to say that. It’s what you’re taught because if you don’t say you’re happy, you'll go to hell. They don’t recognize that. It took me a long time.”"

"As a dedicated male in the AUB, George rose quickly in the hierarchy to become a councilman under the prophet, Owen Allred. “George ended up with eight total wives but two left him,” says Lillian. “I grew up with six mothers and 39 siblings, but only six of us were my mom’s kids and two of my dad’s wives never had children.”"

"In keeping with her reputation for outspokenness against the lifestyle she endured for too long, Rowenna says, “You can tell a man dreamed all this up. Polygamy is one big eternal fuck.”"

"Vicky says that she has never seen any truly happy families within these polygamous groups. “Every man has his favorite wife,” she explains. “It causes a lot of hurt.”"

"The abusive nature of polygamous relationships often extend to women within one household vying with one another for the affections and attention of one man. As Vicky and Rowenna explain, “What is going on with a sister-wife, or wives, is that you are sharing one penis. That’s what it all revolves around.”"

"With the power of the scriptures, polygamy continues its enslavement of women who are manipulated into believing that to do otherwise is to reap eternal damnation; by believing, however, they make of their lives a hell on earth."

"In polygamy, children are mere extensions of their mothers and normally are their fathers’ property. With so many children, they are thought of by fathers as a group rather than as individuals. Men, who believe they are the God of the home and who already live outside of societal norms, often make their children victims of ever more deviant and unimaginable abuses. Polygamy is patriarchy spun off into its furthest possible extreme."

"Moses has four wives, and so did Abraham...To this day, Judaism permits polygamy. The Hindus permit polygamy. The Buddhists permit polygamy. There is not a single religion on the face of the earth that bans polygamy, but all religions agree that women are not allowed to have more than one husband."