Marriage should be celebrated as the optimistic and glorious thing that it is. We can’t call it
a failure if it doesn’t last forever.
—Jeanette Winterson, 2002
Divorces are made in heaven.
10
—Oscar Wilde, 1895
It is hard to part only with your first husband; then they streak by as mile signs.
—Mikhail Zhvanetsky, 2010
***
The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have past at home in the bosom
of my family.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1790
Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.
—George Burns, 1990
***
Familiarity breeds contempt – and children.
11
—Mark Twain, 1935
A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.
—Carl Sandburg, 1948
Of children as of procreation – the pleasure momentary, the posture ridiculous, the
expenses damnable.
—Evelyn Waugh, 1954
We want better reasons for having children than not knowing how to prevent them.
—Dora Russell, 1925
To bring into the world an unwanted human being is as antisocial an act as murder.
—Gore Vidal, 1968
***
Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds, there is a woman giving birth to a child. She
must be found and stopped.
—Sam Levenson
12
10
This is a twist of the European proverb “Marriages are made in heaven”, which may be traced
back to at least a (longer) line, circa 1567, by William Painter.
11
The first clause is due to Aesop (fifth century BC).
12
Included, without a date, into a 2016 compilation of Levenson’s aphorisms.
On Love, Family, and Children
127
a failure if it doesn’t last forever.
—Jeanette Winterson, 2002
Divorces are made in heaven.
10
—Oscar Wilde, 1895
It is hard to part only with your first husband; then they streak by as mile signs.
—Mikhail Zhvanetsky, 2010
***
The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have past at home in the bosom
of my family.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1790
Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.
—George Burns, 1990
***
Familiarity breeds contempt – and children.
11
—Mark Twain, 1935
A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.
—Carl Sandburg, 1948
Of children as of procreation – the pleasure momentary, the posture ridiculous, the
expenses damnable.
—Evelyn Waugh, 1954
We want better reasons for having children than not knowing how to prevent them.
—Dora Russell, 1925
To bring into the world an unwanted human being is as antisocial an act as murder.
—Gore Vidal, 1968
***
Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds, there is a woman giving birth to a child. She
must be found and stopped.
—Sam Levenson
12
10
This is a twist of the European proverb “Marriages are made in heaven”, which may be traced
back to at least a (longer) line, circa 1567, by William Painter.
11
The first clause is due to Aesop (fifth century BC).
12
Included, without a date, into a 2016 compilation of Levenson’s aphorisms.
On Love, Family, and Children
127