Accident counts for as much in companionship as in marriage.

The remark suggests that the people who become our intimates are often chosen less by deliberate preference than by circumstance—proximity, timing, shared institutions, chance introductions, and the accidents of travel or work. By pairing “companionship” with “marriage,” Adams implies that even relationships we treat as weighty, fated, or morally freighted may originate in contingency rather than destiny. The line carries a characteristically skeptical, modern sensibility: it undercuts romantic narratives of perfect selection and emphasizes how social life is structured by happenstance. It also hints at humility—recognizing the role of luck in who we love or befriend—and at the fragility of such bonds when their origins are accidental rather than purposive.