It is obvious that rationality has been utterly lost in modern marriage: which is no objection to marriage, however, but rather to modernity.
(Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), German philosopher, classical scholar, critic of culture. Friedrich Nietzsche, Sämtliche Werke: Kritische Studienausgabe, vol. 6, p. 140, eds. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari, Berlin, de Gruyter (1980). Twilight of the Idols, "Skirmishes of an Untimely Man," section 39 (prepared for publication 1888, published 1889).)
What is marriage, is marriage protection or religion, is marriage renunciation or abundance, is marriage a stepping-stone or an end. What is marriage.
(Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), U.S. author. Originally published with the vocal score as the libretto for the opera by Virgil Thomson, Music Press (1947). The Mother of Us All, Last Operas and Plays, Rinehart (1949).)
(Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941), U.S. author, columnist. First published in Mother Jones (1987). "Socialism in One Household," The Worst Years of Our Lives (1991).)
(François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680), French writer, moralist. repr. F.A. Stokes Co., New York (c. 1930). Moral Maxims and Reflections, no. 114 (1665-1678), trans. London (1706).)