quotations about adultery
The answer to 'Why shouldn't I commit adultery?' is that it pays not to, and utility is the final measure of the rationality of moral behavior.
SHEELA PAWAR
Trusting Others, Trusting God: Concepts of Belief, Faith and Rationality
A mistress should be like a little country retreat near the town, not to dwell in constantly, but only for a night and away.
WILLIAM WYCHERLEY
The Country Wife
I was growing tired of all the fussing and prevaricating, of the stolen hours and the secret rendez-vous; of the small indignities and broad discomfort that are part and parcel of adultery.
VICKI BAUM
I Know What I'm Worth
Adultery is a disguised detour en route to your personal demise.
PAUL DAVIS
Adultery: 101 Reasons Not to Cheat
No adultery is bloodless.
NATALIA GINZBURG
The City and the House
Adulterers, in the first stages of the church, were excommunicated forever, and unqualified all their lives for bearing a part in Christian assemblies, notwithstanding they might seek it with tears, and all the appearances of the most unfeigned repentance.
JOSEPH ADDISON
attributed, Day's Collacon
Some will say that adultery is wrong because it is against the will of God. Others will say that adultery is wrong if, and only if, it has harmful consequences. Still others will claim that the wrongness of adultery consists in the evil will of the adulterer, his or her selfishness, or lack of concern for obligations to others. Some may argue that adultery is not evil, but marriage is, or that adultery is not evil if both partners agree to it.
EUGENE KELLY
The Basics of Western Philosophy
"Thou shalt not commit adultery" is a command which makes no distinction between the following persons. They are all required to obey it:
Children at birth.
Children in the cradle.
School children.
Youths and maidens.
Fresh adults.
Older ones.
Men and women of 40.
Of 50.
Of 60.
Of 70.
Of 80.
Of 90.
Of 100.
The command does not distributed its burden equally, and cannot. It is not hard upon the three sets of children. It is hard--harder--still harder upon the next three sets--cruelly hard. It is blessedly softened to the next three sets. It has now done all the damage it can, and might as well be put out of commission.
JOHN D'AGATA
The Making of the American Essay
About adultery: Don't go looking for pancakes when you have flapjacks at home.
JAROD KINTZ
A Story That Talks about Talking Is Like Chatter to Chattering Teeth, and Every Set of Dentures Can Attest to the Fact That
So why is adultery rife, even in functional relationships -- where two people patently adore each other, their children are charming and they still laugh at each other's jokes? "From a Darwinian perspective we were probably evolved to want it all," Fisher says. "And now we live in a stage of human evolution where we can actually get it all."
ANNA MAXTED
"Helen Fisher and Esther Perel: Infidelity is common, and a 'yearning for freedom'", The Australian, February 22, 2016
'Tis more than nature's mighty hand can do, To make one humane and a lecher too; Look how a wolf doth like a dog appear, So like a friend is an adulterer: Voluptuaries, and these belly-gods, No more true men are than so many toads.
GEORGE CHAPMAN
The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois
This asymmetry is known as the double standard The logic is that because women are property (chattels), adultery is a property violation. The husband is considered the damaged party (rather than the wife of the adulterous man). All definitions of adultery are in terms of the marital status of the woman, but do not consider the marital status of the man involved. The double standard meant that traditionally in many legal systems a man would not be prosecuted if he killed another man whom he caught in flagrante with his wife. Likewise, a man caught this way had to compensate the husband, whereas a woman could not request compensation from her husband's extra-marital mate. The wife was generally not considered to have the right to exclusive access to her husband's sexual services, whereas the opposite was assumed.
CAREL P. VAN SCHAIK
The Primate Origins of Human Nature
Where you really have your eggs in one basket and that breach happens and you know you should go but you're still in love and you just don't know what to do. It hits you because it's not like -- you're a cheater, and a liar, and I hate you, and you're no good, and I'm leaving. It's not that. It's like, I'm tormented. Even though you've done this and I know it, I still don't know what to do. I know I should go, but I don't want to. And that's why it's such a f***ed-up thing.
JENNIFER LOPEZ
interview, Elle, January 5, 2010
Adultery is a most conventional way to rise above the conventional.
VLADIMIR NABOKOV
Lectures on Literature
Adultery is such a serious and terrible sin that Jesus accepted it as the only possible act that could justify divorce.
MOSES MLENGA
Polygamy in Northern Malawi: A Christian Reassessment
I liken an affair to the shattering of a Waterford crystal vase. You can glue it back together, but it will never be the same again.
JOHN GOTTMAN
attributed, The Greatest Quotations of All Time
Thoughts of adultery do not take possession of the heart of a married woman all at once, like a shot from a pistol.
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
Physiology of Marriage
It's carnal groundhog day out there. And the whole world watches it on repeat. Why do they never learn?
SARAH BERRY
"Are adulterers stupid?", The Sydney Morning Herald, July 5, 2012