marriage

you know i am no champion of it



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"Of course married life is merely a habit, a bad habit. But then one regrets the loss even of one's worst habits. Perhaps one regrets them the most. They are such an essential part of one's personality."
     – Lord Henry to Dorian Gray, from The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (174)

"What nonsense people talk about happy marriages! A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her."
     – Lord Henry to Lady Narborough, from The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (147)

"When a woman marries again it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs."
     – Lord Henry to Lady Narborough, from The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (146-7)

"I have a theory that it is always the women who propose to us, and not we who propose to the women."
     – Lord Henry to Dorian Gray and Basil Hallward, from The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (63)

"Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed."
     – Lord Henry to Dorian Gray, from The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (38)

"Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures."
     – Nekayah to Rasselas, from The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia, by Samuel Johnson

"Marriage is evidently the dictate of nature; men and women were made to be companions of each other, and therefore I cannot be persuaded but that marriage is one of the means of happiness."
     – Rasselas to Nekayah, from The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia, by Samuel Johnson

"Such is the common practice of marriage. A youth and maiden meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to divert their attention, or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before concealed; they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with cruelty."
     – Rasselas to Nekayah, from The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia, by Samuel Johnson

"I believe it will be found that those who marry late are best pleased with their children, and those who marry early with their partners."
     – Nekayah to Rasselas, from The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia, by Samuel Johnson