"Here is my opinion. Women are the chief stumbling-blocks to a man's career. It is difficult to love a woman and do anything else. To achieve it and to love in comfort and unhampered, the only way is to marry! How am I to put to you what I think?" And Serpukhovskoy, who was fond of similes, went on: "Wait a bit! Wait a bit! . . . Yes, if you had to carry a load and use your hands at the same time, it would be possible only if the load were strapped on your back: and this is marriage. I found out that when I married, I suddenly had my hands free. But if you drag that load without marriage, your hands are so full that you can do nothing else. Look at Mazankov, at Krupov! They have ruined their careers because of women!"

Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Book 1, Part 3, Chapter 21.