QuoteProject
If they only married when they fell in love, most people would die unwed.
Robert Louis Stevenson
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that love is not the only reason to marry, and many would remain single if that were the case.

Robert Louis Stevenson highlights the complexity of love and relationships by implying that romantic love is often not the sole basis for marriage. Many individuals may marry for reasons beyond love, such as companionship, social expectations, or stability, which means that if love were the only criteria, a large number of people might remain unmarried throughout their lives.

Themes

LoveMarriageRelationshipsCompanionshipRomance

In practice

Example use cases

This quote would be perfect for a discussion on the reasons people choose to marry in a sociology class.

More from Robert Louis Stevenson

Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
His past was fairly blameless; few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension; yet he was humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done, and raised up again into sober and fearful gratitude by the many he had come so near to doing, yet avoided.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of outward conditions.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
It is the history of our kindnesses that alone make this world tolerable. If it were not for that, for the effect of kind words, kind looks, kind letters . . . I should be inclined to think our life a practical jest in the worst possible spirit.
Robert Louis StevensonRead

Similar quotes

I didn't know every day I would be discussing the tone of my voice with my wife. I thought it was a marriage. Apparently, it's a musical.
Jerry SeinfeldRead
Nothing is more sweet than harmony in marriage, and nothing more distressing than dissension.
Martin LutherRead
One of the best hearing aids a man can have is an attentive wife.
Groucho MarxRead
The labor movement is people. Our unions have brought millions of men and women together, made them members one of another, and given them common tools for common goals. Their goals are goals for all America - and their enemies are the enemies for progress. The two cannot be separated.
John F. KennedyRead
More than in any other human relationship, overwhelmingly more, motherhood means being instantly interruptible, responsive, and responsible
Tillie OlsenRead
This is the great new problem of mankind. We have inherited a large house, a great ‘world house’ in which we have to live together– black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Muslim and Hindu– a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest, who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.