“When I think of a merry, happy, free young girl – and look at the ailing, aching state a young wife generally is doomed to – which you can’t deny is the penalty of marriage.”

“A marriage is no amusement but a solemn act, and generally a sad one.”

“I feel sure that no girl would go to the altar if she knew all.”

“I think people really marry far too much; it is such a lottery after all, and for a poor woman a very doubtful happiness.”

“Being married gives one one’s position like nothing else can.”

Queen Victoria about Marriage