Definitions HQ

Marriage (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a bond whose essence is ethical love, a kind of love which unlike sexual love and free from the disrupting influence of passion, is not contingent.

Marriage (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠where one speaks without blushing of things that outside it cause shame — because in it the satisfaction of impulse is subordinate.

Marriage (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the free consent of two to become one person — a limitation which, since in it they reach a substantive self-consciousness, is really their liberation.

Marriage (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠neither a sexual relation, nor a civil contract for mutual use (Kant), nor love alone — it is legal ethical love, from which merely subjective love has disappeared.

Marriage (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠an embodiment of ethical love which depends on publicly assuming spousal roles which define individuals as members in a larger unit. Such unselfish membership links marriage and the state.

Marriage (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠only an image of Spirit, not Spirit itself; it has its actual existence not in itself but in the child — in whose coming-to-be the relationship gradually passes away.