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The Church would declare marriages valid ... For the first time in the history of the West you had to be married by a priest ... Laws who they could and couldn’t marry. Diarmaid MacCulloch, Sex and the Church II: Sexual Revolution, BBC 2015
By the 13th century Church authorities had taken control of marriage, enforced celibacy on clergy and silenced Christian women. They had boosted their power by intruding into people’s private lives in unprecedented ways. ibid.
The Church disapproved of all sex even within marriage. But was anybody listening? ibid.
Marriage ceased to be a purely Christian monopoly. Diarmaid MacCulloch, Sex and the Church III: Christianity v The West
It is not a lack of love but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages. Friedrich Nietzsche
Him: Why didn’t you wait for me?
Her: Because rich girls don’t marry poor boys, Jay Gatsby. The Great Gatsby 1974 starring & Robert Redford & Mia Farrow & Bruce Dern & Sam Waterston & Karen Black & Scott Wilson & Lois Chiles & Edward Herrmann & Howard da Silva & Kathryn Leigh Scott & Regina Baff et al, director Jack Clayton
Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was eighteen, she was sixteen and I was three. Billie Holiday, Lady Sings the Blues, 1956
Devil: Do you know who I am?
Drunken man: Of course I do. I married your sister. Donald McGill, seaside postcard
The [Spartan] custom was to capture women for marriage ... The so-called ‘bridesmaid’ took charge of the captured girl. She first shaved her head to the scalp, then dressed her in a man’s cloak and sandals, and laid her down alone on a mattress in the dark. The bridegroom – who was not drunk and thus not impotent, but was sober as always – first had dinner in the messes, then would slip in, undo her belt, lift her and carry her to the bed. Plutarch
In short I was going to ask her if she would like to be married. Far from the Madding Crowd 1968 ***** starring Julie Christie & Terence Stamp & Peter Finch & Alan Bates & Fiona Walker & John Barrett & Owen Berry & Lawrence Carter & Denise Coffey & Paul Dawkins & Vincent Harding et al, director John Schlesinger, Bates to Bathsheba's mother
I’ve come to make you an offer of marriage. ibid. neighbouring farmer
It appears that ordinary men take wives because possession is not possible without marriage, and that ordinary women accept husbands because marriage is not possible without possession. Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd
All romances end at marriage. ibid.
If we be doomed to marry, we marry; if we be doomed to remain single we do. Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree
Their lives were ruined, he thought; ruined by the fundamental error of their matrimonial union: that of having based a permanent contract on a temporary feeling which had no necessary connection with affinities that alone render a lifelong comradeship tolerable. Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
In matters of religion and matrimony I never give any advice; because I will not have anybody’s torments in this world or the next laid to my charge. Lord Chesterfield, 1694-1773
Sooner or later your wife becomes your pal. And it becomes inappropriate to shag your pal. Rab C Nesbitt: Fuel s5e2, BBC 1996
The world is a veil of hopeless misery. Marriage nothing but institutionalised boredom. Rab C Nesbitt s6e3: Growth, BBC 1997
That’s the thing about being married: you learn how to give good silence. Rab C Nesbitt s7e6: Back, BBC 1998
I was happier being unhappy than being married. Rab C Nesbitt s8e2: Heat, Jamesie, BBC 1999
It’s no good in a marriage for two people to spend too much time together. It kills the subtle magic of the apathy. Rab C Nesbitt s8e7: Trips, Rab to Mary
A woman dictates before marriage in order that she may have an appetite for submission afterwards. George Eliot, Middlemarch
There are some who want to get married and others who don’t. I have never had an impulse to go to the altar. I am a difficult person to lead. Greta Garbo
I don’t want any alimony. You can have everything. I just want out. We’ve discussed it fifty times; it’s no use. I don’t know. I can’t stand the marriage. I don’t find you any fun. I feel you suffocate me. I don’t feel any rapport with you. And I don’t feel you physically. Oh for God’s sake, Allan, don’t take it personally. Play It Again, Sam 1972 starring Woody Allen & Diane Keaton & Jerry Lacy & Tony Roberts & Sisan Anspach & Jennifer Salt & Joy Bang & Viva & Susanne Zenor & Diana Davila et al, director Herbert Ross
My lawyer will call your lawyer. ibid.
Woody: How old are you, darling? How are you? How old are you?
Child: Twelve.
Woody: Are you married? Broadway Danny Rose 1984 starring Woody Allen & Mia Farrow & Nick Apollo Forte & Sandy Baron & Gloria Parker et al, director Woody Allen, Wood Allen to child at table
Marriage is the death of hope. Woody Allen
Are you writing a book about our marriage? Manhattan 1979 starring Woody Allen, Dianne Keaton & Michael Murphy & Mariel Hemingway & Meryl Street & Anne Byrne & Michael O’Donaghue & Wallace Shawn & Karen Ludwig & Charles Levin & Karen Allen & David Rasche & Mark Linn-Baker et al, director Woody Allen
The most out-there thing I’m saying is, ‘Don’t have babies. Don’t get married and have kids. Have a larger life than that.’ Roseanne Barr
An ancient code – death before dishonour. Their daughter Shafilea refused to enter into an arranged marriage so she had to die. They acted the part of grief-stricken parents. It took eight years: the Dishonourable Killers. Evil Up Close: The Dishonorable Killers, Crime Channel 2013