Shakespeare Quotations on Marriage
Get thee a good husband,
and use him as he uses thee.
(All's Well That Ends Well 1.1.212-13)
If men could be contented to be what they are, there were no fear in marriage.
(All's Well That Ends Well 1.3.54)
A young man married is a man that's marr'd.
(All's Well That Ends Well 2.3.297)
Men are April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.
(As You Like It 4.1.130-2)
The fittest time to corrupt a man's wife is when she's fallen out with her husband.
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage.
The instances that second marriage move
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.
Marriage is a matter of more worth
Than to be dealt in by attorneyship.
(1 Henry VI 5.5.50-1)
For what is wedlock forced but a hell,
An age of discord and continual strife?
Whereas the contrary bringeth bliss,
And is a pattern of celestial peace.
(1 Henry VI 5.5.63-6)
Hasty marriage seldom proveth well.
(3 Henry VI 4.1.19)
Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.
(The Merchant of Venice 2.9.85)
In love the heavens themselves do guide the state;
Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate.
(The Merry Wives of Windsor 5.5.225-6)
In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.
(Much Ado About Nothing 1.1.243-4)
Thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife!
(Much Ado About Nothing 5.4.126)
The curse of marriage
That we can call these delicate creatures ours
And not their appetites!
I have thrust myself into this maze,
Haply to wive and thrive as best I may.
(The Taming of the Shrew 1.2.56-7)
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks and true obedience;
Too little payment for so great a debt.
(The Taming of the Shrew 5.2.145-53)
Who woo'd in haste and means to wed at leisure.
(The Taming of the Shrew 3.2.12)
This is a way to kill a wife with kindness.
(The Taming of the Shrew 4.1.197)
I will be master of what is mine own:
She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house,
My household stuff, my field, my barn,
My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing.
(The Taming of the Shrew 3.2.228-31)
Fools are as like husbands as pilchards are to
herrings, the husband's the bigger.
(Twelfth Night 3.1.35-6)
Shakespeare Wedding Readings
Shakespeare on Love
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Shakespeare on Jealousy
Shakespeare on Revenge
Quotations About William Shakespeare
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