Those who talk most about the blessings of marriage and the constancy of its vows are the very people who declare that if the chain were broken and the prisoners left free to choose, the whole social fabric would fly asunder. You cannot have the argument both ways. If the prisoner is happy, why lock him in? If he is not, why pretend that he is?

The confusion of marriage with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other single error.

I have had my share of vanity; for as a young man I was admired by women; and as a statue I am praised by art critics.

When the military man approaches, the world locks up its spoons and packs off its womankind. No: I sing, not arms and the hero, but the philosophic man: he who…

Marriage, a market which has nothing free but the entrance.

A positive engagement to marry a certain person at a certain time, at all haps and hazards, I have always considered the most ridiculous thing on earth.

There are pretenses which are very sincere, and marriage is their school.