Marriage

It is a mistake for a taciturn, serious-minded woman to marry a jovial man, but not for a serious-minded man to marry a lighthearted woman. ~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Almost no one is foolish enough to imagine that he automatically deserves great success in any field of activity; yet almost everyone believes that he automatically deserves success in marriage. ~~ Sydney J. Harris

Marriage should be a duet -- when one sings, the other claps. ~~ Joe Murray

Those who marry to escape something usually find something else. ~~ George Ade

The man who boasts he never made a mistake usually has a wife who made a big one. ~~ Unattributed

Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster that devours everything: familiarity. ~~ Honore de Balzac

Money mad. My wife says I spend money like a drunken sailor. Wonder what she'd say if I spent it like a sober congressman? ~~ R. W. Plagge

Marriage means expectations and expectations mean conflict. ~~ Anthony Clare

Some pray to marry the man they love, my prayer will somewhat vary: I humbly pray to heaven above that I love the man I marry. ~~ Rose Pastor Stokes

[On the breakup of Harrison Ford's first marriage:] It wasn't because he became a star. In all relationships there are changes and the point is both partners

have to change together. ~~ Walter Beakel

The man who didn't want his wife to work has been succeeded by the man who asks about her chances of getting a raise. ~~ Earl Wilson

Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people together through the years. ~~ Simone Signoret

More marriages might survive if the partners realized that sometimes the better comes after the worse. ~~ Doug Larson

In marriage, being the right person is as important as finding the right person. ~~ Wilbert Donald Gough

Marrying for love may be a bit risky, but it is so honest that God can't help but smile on it. ~~ Josh Billings

Marriage is like vitamins: we supplement each other's minimum daily requirements. ~~ Kathy Mohnke

Spouses often point out each other's deficiencies. Instead, we should be each other's motivator. My husband touches my spirit, and I try my best to motivate him, too. ~~ Gladys Knight

Often the difference between a successful marriage and a mediocre one consists of leaving about three or four things a day unsaid. ~~ Harlan Miller

People are always asking couples whose marriage has endured at least a quarter of a century for their secret for success. Actually, it is no secret at all. I am a forgiving woman. Long ago, I forgave my husband for not being Paul Newman. ~~ Erma Bombeck

There is not one in a hundred of either sex who is not taken in when they marry . It is, of all transactions, the one in which people expect most from others, and are least honest themselves. ~~ Jane Austin

To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the marriage cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up. ~~ Ogden Nash

Marriage is like a dollar bill. You cannot spend half of it when you tear it in two. The value of one half depends upon the other. ~~ Joe Moore

Marriage is an adventure, like going to war. ~~ G. K. Chesterton

You don't marry one person; you marry three . the person you think they are, the person they are, and the person they are going to become as the result of being married to you. ~~ Richard Needham

[On her first meeting with he ex-husband, Steven Seagal:] He reminded me of an alien. ~~ Kelly Le Brock

I believe in the institution of marriage and I intend to keep trying until I get it right. ~~ Richard Pryor

One advantage of marriage, it seems to me, is that when you fall out of love with him, or he falls out of love with you, it keeps you together until you maybe fall in love again. ~~ Judith Viorst

Marriage resembles a pair of shears, so jointed that they cannot be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them. ~~ Logan Pearsall Smith

No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a really nice man who wishes she were not. ~~ H. L. Mencken

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half shut afterwards. ~~ Benjamin Franklin

Whenever you want to marry someone, go have lunch with his ex-wife. ~~ Shelley Winters

Accident counts for much in companionship, as in marriage. ~~ Henry Adams

I know some good marriages -- marriages where both people are just trying to get through their days by helping each other, being good to each other. ~~ Erica Jong

After a heated argument on some trivial matter Nancy [Astor] shouted, If I were your wife I would put poison in your coffee! Whereupon Winston [Churchill] answered, And if I were your husband I would drink it. ~~ Consuelo Vanderbilt

Marriage is the wastepaper basket of the emotions. ~~ Sidney Webb

When marrying, ask yourself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this person into your old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory. ~~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Whatever you may look like, marry a man your own age -- as your beauty fades, so will his eyesight. ~~ Phyllis Diller

It is very important to make sure the person you're marrying is like minded. It's crucial for a couple to have shared goals and values. The more you have in common the less you have to argue about. ~~ Barbara Friedman

It [marriage] happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair to getting out. ~~ Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

When a man opens the car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife. ~~ Duke of Edinburgh

[Marriage is] like signing a 356-page contract without knowing what's in it. ~~ Mick Jagger

In the choice of a horse and a wife, a man must please himself, ignoring the opinion and advice of friends. ~~ George John Whyte-Melville

Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true
Baby then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do
We could be married
And then we'd be happy
Wouldn't it be nice? ~~ Wouldn't It Be Nice (song, The Beach Boys)

The great secret of successful marriage is to treat all disasters as incidents and none of the incidents as disasters. ~~ Harold Nicholson

Whoever said Marriage is a 50-50 proposition laid the foundation for more divorce fees than any other short sentence in our language. ~~ Austin Elliot

Marriage is our last, best chance to grow up. ~~ Joseph Barth

There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company than a good marriage. ~~ Martin Luther

Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century. ~~ Mark Twain

There is no greater excitement than to support an intellectual wife and have her support you. Marriage is a partnership in which each inspires the other, and brings fruition to both of you. ~~ Millicent Carey McIntosh

[On marriage:] Look for a sweet person. Forget rich. ~~ Estee Lauder

It is a lovely thing to have a husband and wife developing together and having the feeling of falling in love again. This is what marriage really means: helping one another to reach the full status of being persons, responsible and autonomous beings who do not run away from life. ~~ Paul Tournier

To keep the fire burning brightly, there's one easy rule: keep the two logs together, near enough to keep each other warm and far enough apart -- about a finger's breadth -- for breathing room. Good fire, good marriage, same rule. ~~ Marnie Reed Crowell

What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility. ~~ George Levinger

. to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part. ~~ The Book of Common Prayer

The fundamental error of their matrimonial union: that of having based a permanent contract on a temporary feeling. ~~ Thomas Hardy

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person. ~~ Mignon McLaughlin

We would have broken up except for the children. Who were the children? Well, she and I were. ~~ Mort Sahl

Basically my wife was immature. I'd be at home in the bath and she'd come in and sink my boats. ~~ Woody Allen

There are lovers, there are friends
And it's hard to tell where one begins and the other ends
There are those, the ones like you
Who have somehow found a way to be the two. ~~ Lovers and Friends (song, 1984, The Brothers Cazimero)