Quotes & Sayings About Arranged Marriages

Thanks to arranged marriages: There are countless women who have never been their husband's girlfriend. — Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Most Kikuyu marriages were arranged on the basis of what is described by anthropologists as the bride price. — Louis Leakey

Even though we'd never met, imagining being dumped by Gene made me want to die. What was the point of going out with someone? What was the point of falling in love? The whole thing was enough to make me wish I'd been born in one of those countries where they still have arranged marriages. I mean, okay, yes, it would certainly suck not being allowed to drive or vote and having to ask a man's permission to leave the house.
But at least you wouldn't have to worry about being dumped. — Melissa Kantor

Arranged Marriages don't always have to be risky. Get to know your future in-laws. She's bound to be like one of them. — Siddharth Katragadda

While arranged marriages are no longer the norm ... — Anonymous

I don't think I will go for an arranged marriage, but I am not against arranged marriages. — Ranbir Kapoor

Practices such as arranged marriages and restrictions on girls attending school have deep roots, and changing them is a gradual process. Sometimes these problems seem very far away from us here in the United States. But let's remember that even into the 20th century, an American woman could not own property or vote in national elections. — Tina Brown

There is silence and then the familiar smack of Beatrice Muriel's palm against her forehead. "A love marriage," she says. In her opinion, love marriages border on the indecent. They signify a breakdown of propriety, a giving in to the base instincts exhibited by the lower castes and foreigners. — Nayomi Munaweera

When I hear from people that religion doesn't hurt anything, I say really? Well besides wars, the crusades, the inquisitions, 9-11, ethnic cleansing, the suppression of women, the suppression of homosexuals, fatwas, honor killings, suicide bombings, arranged marriages to minors, human sacrifice, burning witches, and systematic sex with children, I have a few little quibbles. And I forgot blowing up girl schools in Afghanistan. — Bill Maher

Love and passion begat marriage in my world. Yet in my grandparents' world, marriage began with practicality. My grandfather told me proudly of that day he first met my grandmother. He interviewed her, posing little riddles to test her common sense. "Supposing you have to take the children to school and you're late and it's supposed to rain," he said. "Would you take a taxi or a bus?" My grandmother said, "Well, first I'd take an umbrella." Ice cream in Central Park, this was not. — Padma Lakshmi

Nina could defend arranged marriages in her sleep, she had been asked about them so often. To her horror, she had even begun to sound like her mother. — Manju Kapur

Arranged marriages are big business in the U.K. Second- and third-generation immigrant families, with no extended family structure, limited networks and religious restrictions on acceptable ways to meet future spouses, are turning to external matchmakers for help. — Jemima Khan

Yes, many people in rural parts of India are very orthodox and have arranged marriages. But I won't - I want to fall madly in love with someone and be whisked off my feet. — Shilpa Shetty

The usual marriage in traditional cultures was arranged for by the families. It wasn't a person-to-person decision at all ... In the Middle Ages, that was the kind of marriage that was sanctified by the Church. And so the troubadour idea of real person-to-person Amor was very dangerous ... It is in direct contradiction to the way of the Church. The word AMOR spelt backwards is ROMA, the Roman Catholic Church, which was justifying marriages that were simply political and social in their character. And so came this movement validating individual choice, what I call following your bliss. — Joseph Campbell

Blessed is a mother that would give up part of her soul for her children's happiness. — Shannon L. Alder

In the Renaissance world of arranged marriages, there were no romantic proposals on bended knee - only notaries and contracts. — Elizabeth Lev

Wary of being caught unawares, we planned our parenthood, committed to trial marriages with pre-nuptials, and pre-arranged our parents' funerals - convinced we could pre-feel the feelings that we have heard attend new life, true love, and death. — Thomas Lynch

I dislike arranged marriages. There are some mistakes for which one should not be able to blame one's poor parents. — Salman Rushdie

I think I've become the brand ambassador of arranged marriages, especially for working Indian women. — Sakshi Tanwar

The only happy marriages I know are arranged ones. — Leo Tolstoy

Marriages had different meanings back then than they do now, they were used to cement agreements between families, business deals and things like that. The idea of marriages being arranged for love is some sort of modern idea, really. — Jared Harris

I always thought that what Rajima did with those cast-off peels was a metaphor for how she dealt with her arranged marriage. She transformed those peels, with palm sugar for sweetness and tamarind for tang, into something precious. — Padma Lakshmi

I would separate marriages into rational and irrational and I would included both love and arranged marriages as irrational marriage.
Rational marriage for me is when you can really understand by mind not by heart. — M.F. Moonzajer

A memory: Isola as a toddler, sugarlump teeth, skin still smelling of milk. Hair that curled without use of an iron and sweet dresses that didn't matter were dirtied. When she was old enough, she demanded the usual suspects at bedtime: The Little Mermaid, Hansel and Gretel, Beauty and the Beast.
Even then, Mother's contempt for non-Pardieu fairytales was obvious.
'Hmph,' she snorted derisively, folding up her knees to perch on Isola's bed. 'Listen to me, Isola. The original Beauty's just an encouragement to young women to accept arranged marriages. What it's really saying to impressionable girls is, "Don't worry if your new husband is decades older than you, or ugly, or horrid. If you're sweet and obedient enough, you might just discover he's a prince in disguise!'

Mother's Most Lasting Advice
'Never be that girl, Isola. Never pick the beast or the wolf on the off-chance he won't devour you. — Allyse Near

It has been said that marriages are arranged by Heaven, that destiny will bring even the most distantly separated people together, that all is settled before birth, and no matter how much we wander from our paths, no matter how our fortunes change - for good or bad - all we can do is accomplish the decree of fate. This, in the end, is our blessing and our heartbreak. — Lisa See