Every persisting marriage is based on fear', said Peregrine. 'Fear is fundamental, you dig down in human nature and what's at the bottom? Mean spiteful cruel self-regarding fear, whether it makes you to put the foot in it or whether it makes you to cower...

Iris Murdoch
About This Quote

In this quote from "The Dark Forest", by Dorothy L. Sayers, Peregrine explains why marriages fail. You will find that all persistent marriages are built upon a foundation of fear. Each party looks at the other one as a threat and fears the other person’s irrational behavior. They don’t want to get hurt, so they try to avoid doing anything that might cause the other party pain.

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