Marriage Quote by Voltaire

Voltaire treats friendship with the same clear-eyed skepticism he aimed at churches, courts, and every institution that claimed permanence. Calling it "the marriage of the soul" flatters the ideal: a voluntary bond chosen not for property, duty, or blood, but for recognition - minds meeting as equals. Then he twists the knife. If it is a marriage, it is also "liable to divorce". The romance of spiritual union is instantly dragged into the messy world of contracts, disappointments, and self-interest.

The intent is less to cheapen friendship than to puncture the piety around it. In Voltaire's century, marriage was less a love story than a social arrangement with legal consequences. By importing that framework into the supposedly pure realm of friendship, he suggests that even our highest attachments aren’t immune to the forces that end relationships: shifting incentives, wounded pride, political pressure, simple boredom. "Soul" here isn't mystical; it's psychological. You can adore someone's mind and still outgrow it.

The subtext carries a warning for an Enlightenment public that prized salons, patronage, and networks: friendship often masquerades as virtue while functioning as alliance. When circumstances change, alliances dissolve. Voltaire, frequently exiled, censored, and forced to recalibrate loyalties, knew that intimacy can be sincere and still contingent. The line works because it gives you the ideal and its expiration date in the same breath - a compact, cynical mercy that leaves room for affection without demanding a myth of forever.