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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
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote questions the true nature and purpose of marriage.

Gertrude Stein's quote reflects on the multifaceted nature of marriage, inviting a deep exploration of its meanings and implications. By posing a series of questions about what marriage represents—whether it is a form of protection, a religious institution, a sacrifice, or a goal in itself—Stein encourages individuals to contemplate the complexities and contradictions inherent in this social construct, emphasizing that the essence of marriage can vary greatly among different people and cultures.

Themes

MarriageRelationshipsCommitmentLove

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a wedding speech to spark discussion about the nature of marriage.

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The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.
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I simply contend that the middle-class ideal which demands that people be affectionate, respectable, honest and content, that they avoid excitements and cultivate serenity is the ideal that appeals to me, it is in short the ideal of affectionate family life, of honorable business methods.
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It is natural to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes to that siren until she allures us to our death.
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