Samuel Johnson Quotes about Marriage

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Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.

Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.

Samuel Johnson

Marriage, Men, Wife

Such is the common process of marriage. A youth and maiden exchange meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to divert attention, or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before concealed; they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with cruelty.

Samuel Johnson

Marriage, Dream, Home

Samuel Johnson, Peter Martin (2009). “Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings”, p.310, Harvard University Press

Marriage is the strictest tie of perpetual friendship, and there can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity; and he must expect to be wretched, who pays to beauty, riches, or politeness that regard which only virtue and piety can claim.

Samuel Johnson

Marriage, Integrity, Ties

Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1836). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: with an essay on his life and genius”, p.41

It is not from reason and prudence that people marry, but from inclination.

Samuel Johnson

Marriage, Wedding, People

Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1825). “The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals”, p.163

A married man has many cares, but a bachelor no pleasures.

Samuel Johnson

Marriage, Men, Care

The triumph of hope over experience.

Samuel Johnson

Marriage, Funny Love, Hope

Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 1770)

Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.

Samuel Johnson

Marriage, Wedding, Pain

Rasselas ch. 26 (1759)

There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.

Samuel Johnson

Marriage, Reason, Passing

James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Edmond Malone (1824). “The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished”, p.335

By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time.

Samuel Johnson

Marriage, Men, Wife

Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1825). “The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals”, p.40

I would advise no man to marry who is not likely to propagate understanding.

Samuel Johnson

Marriage, Wedding, Men

Samuel Johnson (1836). “Johnsoniana; or supplement to Boswell; being Anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson, etc”, p.34

A man of sense and education should meet a suitable companion in a wife. It is a miserable thing when the conversation can only be such as whether the mutton should be boiled or roasted, and probably a dispute about that.

Samuel Johnson

Marriage, Men, Wife

James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1859). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.172

It is so far from being natural for a man and woman to live in a state of marriage, that we find all the motives which they have for remaining in that connection, and the restraints which civilised society imposes to prevent separation, are hardly sufficient to keep them together.

Samuel Johnson

Marriage, Men, Together

Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 31 Mar. 1772)