Quotessence
Home / Topics / Matrimony Quotes

Matrimony Quotes

Browse 238 quotes about Matrimony.

Related topics

MarriageMenWifeIfsPeopleHusbandShouldHumansMarriedHeavenThinkingWorldCoupleDoeGivingHeartWells

Matrimony Quotes

“(Response to King Erik XIV of Sweden's proposal of marriage:) "[W]hile we perceive ... the zeal and love of your mind towards us is not diminished, yet in part we are grieved that we cannot gratify your Serene Highness with the same kind of affection. And that indeed does not happen because we doubt in any way of your love and honour, but, as often we have testified both in words and writing, that we have never yet conceived a feeling of that kind of affection towards anyone. We therefore beg your Serene Highness again and again that you be pleased to set a limit to your love, that it advance not beyond the laws of friendship for the present nor disregard them in the future. ... We certainly think that if God ever direct our hearts to consideration of marriage we shall never accept or choose any absent husband how powerful and wealthy a Prince soever. But that we are not to give you an answer until we have seen your person is so far from the thing itself that we never even considered such a thing. I have always given both to your brother ... and also to your ambassador likewise the same answer with scarcely any variation of the words, that we do not conceive in our heart to take a husband but highly commend this single life, and hope that your Serene Highness will no longer spend time in waiting for us.”

LoveWomenFriendshipFreedomMarriageEmpowermentIndependenceQueensSelf DeterminationRefusalMatrimonySinglesMarriage ProposalBachelorhood
Book:Collected Works
Create image

“It was all Mrs. Bumble. She would do it," urged Mr. Bumble; first looking round, to ascertain that his partner had left the room. That is no excuse," returned Mr. Brownlow. "You were present on the occasion of the destruction of these trinkets, and, indeed, are the more guilty of the two, in the eye of the law; for the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction." If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass — a idiot. If that's the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience — by experience.”

FunnyLawResponsibilityMarriageWomanDominanceMatrimonyWivesHusbands
Book:Oliver Twist
Create image

“[I]t is not by being richer or more powerful that a man becomes better; one is a matter of fortune, the other of virtue. Nor should she deem herself other than venal who weds a rich man rather than a poor, and desires more things in her husband than himself. Assuredly, whomsoever this concupiscence leads into marriage deserves payment rather than affection.”

LoveWomenSinMarriagePovertyPowerVirtueHonestyHonorIntegrityDignityShameFortuneGreedAffectionRichesMaterialismPaymentProstitutionMatrimonyMarried LifeVicePossessionsWedlockWivesConcupiscenceVenality
Book:The Letters of Abélard and Héloïse
Create image

“Still it is true that many same-sex couples want nothing more than to join society as fully integrated socially responsible family-centered taxpaying Little League-coaching nation-serving respectably married citizens. So why not welcome them in Why not recruit them by the vanload to sweep in on heroic wings and save the flagging and battered old institution of matrimony from a bunch of apathetic ne'er-do-well heterosexual deadbeats like me”

HumorMarriageCommitmentHomosexualGay MarriageGay RightsMatrimonySame Sex Marriage
Book:Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
Create image

“No: I shall not marry Samuel Fawthrop Wynne." "I ask why? I must have a reason. In all respects he is more than worthy of you." She stood on the hearth; she was pale as the white marble slab and cornice behind her; her eyes flashed large, dilated, unsmiling. "And I ask in what sense that young man is worthy of me?”

MenWomenMarriageFeminismIntegrityEmpowermentDignitySelf AwarenessIndependenceEqualityGenderChoiceSelf DeterminationInferiorityMatrimonyWorthinessCourtshipSocial NormsWooingMarriage ProposalSuitability
Book:Shirley
Create image

“[I]f the name of wife appears more sacred and more valid, sweeter to me is ever the word friend, or, if thou be not ashamed, concubine ... And thou thyself wert not wholly unmindful of that ... [as in the narrative of thy misfortunes] thou hast not disdained to set forth sundry reasons by which I tried to dissuade thee from our marriage, from an ill-starred bed; but wert silent as to many, in which I preferred love to wedlock, freedom to a bond. I call God to witness, if Augustus, ruling over the whole world, were to deem me worthy of the honour of marriage, and to confirm the whole world to me, to be ruled by me forever, dearer to me and of greater dignity would it seem to be called thy concubine than his empress.”

LoveWomenFreedomSinMarriageVirtueWifeHonorIntegrityDignityShameDevotionMisfortunesSelf DeterminationMatrimonyWorthinessMarried LifeSocial NormsBondsViceWedlockConcubine
Book:The Letters of Abélard and Héloïse
Create image

“[F]rom my years of understanding ... I happily chose this kind of life in which I yet live [i.e., unmarried], which I assure you for my own part hath hitherto best contented myself and I trust hath been most acceptable to God. From the which if either ambition of high estate offered to me in marriage by the pleasure and appointment of my prince ... or if the eschewing of the danger of my enemies or the avoiding of the peril of death ... could have drawn or dissuaded me from this kind of life, I had not now remained in this estate wherein you see me. But so constant have I always continued in this determination ... yet is it most true that at this day I stand free from any other meaning that either I have had in times past or have at this present.”

WomenFreedomMarriageEmpowermentDignityIndependenceQueensChoiceContentmentSelf DeterminationMatrimonySinglesBachelorhood
Book:Collected Works
Create image

“It was a fact generally acknowledged by all but the most contumacious spirits at the beginning of the seventeenth century that woman was the weaker vessel; weaker than man, that is. ... That was the way God had arranged Creation, sanctified in the words of the Apostle. ... Under the common law of England at the accession of King James I, no female had any rights at all (if some were allowed by custom). As an unmarried woman her rights were swallowed up in her father's, and she was his to dispose of in marriage at will. Once she was married her property became absolutely that of her husband. What of those who did not marry? Common law met that problem blandly by not recognizing it. In the words of The Lawes Resolutions [the leading 17th century compendium on women's legal status]: 'All of them are understood either married or to be married.' In 1603 England, in short, still lived in a world governed by feudal law, where a wife passed from the guardianship of her father to her husband; her husband also stood in relation to her as a feudal lord.”

MenWomenMarriageHistoryFeminismEmpowermentIndependencePropertyGenderInequalitySelf DeterminationMisogynyWomen S RightsMatrimonyMarried LifeFathersSocial NormsBondsSubjugationWedlockHusbandsFeudalismCommon LawGuardianship
Book:The Weaker Vessel
Create image

“To prove to [her friend, Swedish diplomat Count] Gyllenborg that she was not superficial, Catherine composed an essay about herself, "so that he would see whether I knew myself or not." The next day, she wrote and handed to Gyllenborg an essay titled 'Portrait of a Fifteen-Year-Old Philosopher.' He was impressed and returned it with a dozen pages of comments, mostly favorable. "I read his remarks again and again, many times [Catherine later recalled in her memoirs]. I impressed them on my consciousness and resolved to follow his advice. In addition, there was something else surprising: one day, while conversing with me, he allowed the following sentence to slip out: 'What a pity that you will marry! I wanted to find out what he meant, but he would not tell me.”

MarriageIndependenceIntelligenceComing Of AgeSelf DeterminationSelf KnowledgeRoyaltyMatrimonyCatherine The Great
Book:Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
Create image

“Contract Matrimony (The Sonnet) When I fall, I fall wholly - without a safety net of any kind. Prenups are an insult of love, all in fear of an imaginary night. Contract lovers are worse than contract killers, at least contract killers don't second guess their motive. Either love or don't, there's no second guessing - either marry or don't, there's no contract matrimony. Prenups are for juveniles, Clauses are for cowards. To seek escape in commitment, is an act of con, not love. Escapists have no right to love, Lovers have no need for escape. When you change exes like socks, It's a sickness, not a choice.”

MarriageRelationshipDivorceBreakupMatrimonySelfless LoveMarriage CounselingWedding VowsPrenupPrenuptial Agreement
Book:Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets
Create image

“Wedding vows, in any culture or language, speak of being together in sickness and in health. There is an assumption that you will receive love and thrive in the constant presence and support of the person with whom you are joined together in matrimony, no matter the weather or circumstance. By committing to spending your life together, you are promising one thing: to be around.”

LoveMarriageSupportPromiseCommitmentSpouseMatrimonyVows
Book:Rewriting My Happily Ever After: A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery
Create image

“And such is your definition of matrimony and dancing. Taken in that light, certainly their resemblance is not striking; but I think I could place them in such a view. You will allow that in both man has the advantage of choice, woman only the power of refusal; that in both it is an engagement between man and woman, formed for the advantage of each; and that when once entered into, they belong exclusively to each other till the moment of its dissolution; that it is their duty each to endeavor to give the other no cause for wishing that he or she had bestowed themselves elsewhere, and their best interest to keep their own imaginations from wandering towards the perfections of their neighbors, or fancying that they should have been better off with any one else.”

MarriageDancingFaithfulnessMatrimony
Book:Northanger abbey
Create image

“What do you mean, 'Angle of Repose?' she asked me when I dreamed we were talking about Grandmother's life, and I said it was the angle at which a man or woman finally lies down. I suppose it is; and yet ... I thought when I began, and still think, that there was another angle in all those years when she was growing old and older and very old, and Grandfather was matching her year for year, a separate line that did not intersect with hers. They were vertical people, they lived by pride, and it is only by the ocular illusion of perspective that they can be said to have met. But he had not been dead two months when she lay down and died too, and that may indicate that at that absolute vanishing point they did intersect. They had intersected for years, for more than he especially would ever admit.”

LoveMarriagePerspectivePrideIllusionSeparationParallelsResignationMatrimonyMarried LifeIntersectionLife Lines
Book:Angle of Repose
Create image

“To disbelieve in marriage is easy: to love a married woman is easy; but to betray a comrade, to be disloyal to a host, to break the covenant of bread and salt, is impossible.”

EasyBreakImpossibleMarriedBreadHostBetraySaltCovenantComradeMatrimonyMarried WomenDisloyal
Book:The Collected Plays of George Bernard Shaw (Illustrated): Including Renowned Titles like Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, The Inca Of Perusalem, Macbeth Skit, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion
Create image

“People are always asking couples whose marriage has endured at least a quarter of a century for their secret for success. Actually, it is no secret at all. I am a forgiving woman. Long ago, I forgave my husband for not being Paul Newman.”

PeopleLongHumorFunnySecretCenturyCoupleHusbandAskingForgivingMy HusbandQuartersLong AgoMatrimonyNewmanQuarter Of A Century
Book:I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression
Create image