Quote by John Cheever

People named John and Mary never divorce. For better or for worse, in madness and in saneness, they seem bound together for eternity by their rudimentary nomenclature. They may loathe and despise one another, quarrel, weep, and commit mayhem, but they are not free to divorce. Tom, Dick, and Harry can go to Reno on a whim, but nothing short of death can separate John and Mary.

People named John and Mary never divorce. For better or for

Summary

This quote suggests that people identified as John and Mary have a strong sense of commitment in their relationships. Symbolically, their chosen names create an eternal bond, even amidst turmoil. While other individuals like Tom, Dick, and Harry can easily divorce, John and Mary are bound by a subconscious association with their names and find it harder to separate. The quote humorously exemplifies the enduring nature of marriages where the partners struggle but ultimately remain together, emphasizing a sense of cultural and societal norms.

Topics

Divorce

By John Cheever

Liked the quote? Share it with your friends.

Random Quotations

Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendshi

Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship and pass the rosy wine.

Charles Dickens

I like singer-songwriters, and I find sad songs comforting r

I like singer-songwriters, and I find sad songs comforting rather than depressing. It makes you realise you're not alone in the world.

Natalie Imbruglia

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.

The world is burdened with young fogies. Old men with ossifi

The world is burdened with young fogies. Old men with ossified minds are easily dealt with. But men who look young, act young and everlastingly harp on the fact that they are young, but who nevertheless think and act with a degree of caution that would be excessive in their grandfathers, are the curse of the world. Their very conservatism is secondhand, and they don't know what they are conserving.

Robertson Davies

Conservatism

Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelin

Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings.

Art

The wind of change is blowing through the continent. Whether

The wind of change is blowing through the continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.

Harold MacMillan

Change

[Books] were devices as crassly practical for storing or tra

[Books] were devices as crassly practical for storing or transmitting language, as the latest Silicon Valley miracles. But by accident, not by cunning calculation, books, because of their weight and texture, and because of their sweetly token resistance to manipulation, involve our hands and eyes, and then our mind and souls, in a spiritual adventure.

Books

Smile at strangers and you just might change a life.

Smile at strangers and you just might change a life.

Smile Inspirational Strangers Compassion Change A Life

Men's need to dominate women may be based in their own sense

Men's need to dominate women may be based in their own sense of marginality or emptiness we do not know its root, and men are making no effort to discover it.

Women

What we learn with pleasure we never forget.

What we learn with pleasure we never forget.

Memory

The thing is plain. All that men really understand, is confi

The thing is plain. All that men really understand, is confined to a very small compass; to their daily affairs and experience; to what they have an opportunity to know, and motives to study or practice. The rest is affectation and imposture.

William Hazlitt

Understanding

Our very strength as lesbians lies in the fact that we are o

Our very strength as lesbians lies in the fact that we are outside of patriarchy our existence challenges its life.

Charlotte Bunch

Strength