It is not marriage that fails; it is people that fail. All that marriage does is to show people up.

Fosdick’s remark shifts blame for “failed marriages” away from the institution and onto the character and maturity of the partners. Marriage, in this view, is not a mechanical guarantee of happiness but an intimate, sustained test that exposes what is already present—selfishness, dishonesty, immaturity, or, conversely, patience and fidelity. The line “shows people up” suggests revelation: close domestic life strips away public performance and forces daily confrontation with one’s habits and moral resources. The quote also implies that reforming marriage as a social form matters less than personal responsibility, growth, and ethical seriousness within it.