Daily Inspiration Quote by Peter De Vries

Marriage, in Peter De Vries' hands, isn’t a bouquet of promises; it’s a set of restraints that only start to pinch once you’ve lived in them awhile. The joke in "The bonds of matrimony are like any other bonds - they mature slowly" hinges on a sly double exposure: "bonds" as loving ties and "bonds" as the stuff that ties you up. De Vries lets the romantic reading walk in the front door, then quietly locks it behind you.

The verb choice matters. Bonds don’t "grow" or "deepen" here; they "mature", a word usually reserved for wine, debt, or bruises. Maturity implies time plus chemistry: pressure, repetition, the accumulation of small compromises that harden into habit. The line isn’t anti-marriage so much as anti-sentimentality. It rejects the instant-gratification myth of coupledom, the idea that matrimony arrives fully formed on the wedding day, like a product unboxed.

De Vries wrote in a mid-century American landscape saturated with domestic ideals, when suburban stability was sold as both moral achievement and consumer lifestyle. His wit punctures that sales pitch without turning bitter. The subtext is that commitment is real precisely because it has consequences; the tie that comforts you today can constrain you tomorrow, and you don’t notice the difference until time has done its quiet work. The laugh lands because it’s uncomfortably accurate: intimacy often becomes visible only after it has already taken shape around you.