"Noyes was in love with his wife, deeply. He was no casual adulterer. He also loved Mary, deeply and spiritually. He found his sex drive too strong for him to set it aside out of respect for prevailing conventions or the approval of the neighbors. If need be, he would change neighbors. Noyes was also deeply and sincerely religious, and accepted God’s commands as presented in the Bible, which clearly prohibited adultery. Most people would give up at this point. Either you sin boldly, or you suffer, or you divorce, or you get another God. All these were impossible for Noyes. Self-deception and obfuscation appears the only way out, and most accounts of Noyes’ thinking can’t resist the suggestion that he allowed his genitals to overrule his brain." -- David White "John Humphrey Noyes: Philosopher of Bible Communism"
(this quote is where the title of my memoir comes from)
