The conception of two people living together for twenty-five years without having a cross word suggests a lack of spirit only to be admired in sheep.

Alan Patrick Herbert

A successful marriage is an edifice¹ that must be rebuilt every day.

Andre Maurois (1885 - 1967)

All married couples should learn the art of battle as they should learn the art of making love. Good battle is objective and honest - never vicious or cruel. Good battle is healthy and constructive², and brings to a marriage the principle of equal partnership³.

Ann Landers (1918 - 2002)

A simple enough pleasure, surely, to have breakfast alone with one's husband, but how seldom married people in the midst of life achieve it.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I used to believe that marriage would diminish me, reduce my options. That you had to be someone less to live with someone else when, of course, you have to be someone more.

Candice Bergen (1946 - )

All marriages are mixed marriages.

Chantal Saperstein

There's only one way to have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn what it is I'll get married again.

Clint Eastwood (1930 - )

A great marriage is not when the 'perfect couple' comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.

Dave Meurer, "Daze⁴ of Our Wives"

Though we marry as adults, we don't marry adults. We marry children who have grown up and still rejoice in being children, especially if we're creative.

Diane Ackerman, One Hundred Names for Love: A Stroke, A Marriage, and the Language of Healing, 2011

Marriage. It's like a cultural hand-rail. It links folks to the past and guides them to the future.

Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, Our Wedding, 1992

I wonder, among all the tangles⁵ of this mortal coil, which one contains tighter knots to undo⁶, and consequently suggests more tugging⁷, and pain, and diversified⁸ elements of misery⁹, than the marriage tie.

Edith Wharton (1862 - 1937)

What is right for one couple is wrong for another. I would say that there are many more important factors to a happy marriage.

Elizabeth Aston, The Second Mrs. Darcy, 2007

When a man is ready to marry, he is often not too particular about the lady.

Eucharista Ward¹⁰, Match For Mary Bennet, 2009

Man's best possession is a sympathetic wife.

Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC), Antigone

Never say that marriage has more of joy than pain.

Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC), Alcestis, 438 B.C.

One man's folly¹¹ is another man's wife.

Helen Rowland (1876 - 1950)

Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more perfect world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners might be found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.

J. R. R. Tolkien (1892 - 1973), Letter to Michael Tolkien, March 1941

I pay very little regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess¹² a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person.

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Mansfield Park

I would rather have young people settle on a small income at once, and have to struggle with a few difficulties together, than be involved in a long engagement.

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Persuasion¹³, 1818

Knowing their feelings as she did, it was a most attractive picture of happiness to her. She always watched them as long as she could, delighted to fancy she understood what they might be talking of, as they walked along in happy independence, or equally delighted to see the Admiral's hearty¹⁴ shake of the hand when he encountered an old friend, and observe their eagerness of conversation when occasionally forming into a little knot of the navy, Mrs Croft looking as intelligent and keen as any of the officers around her.

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Persuasion, 1818

The only time I ever really suffered in body or mind, the only time that I ever fancied myself unwell, or had any ideas of danger, was the winter that I passed by myself. As long as we could be together, nothing ever ailed¹⁵ me, and I never met with the smallest inconvenience.

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Persuasion, 1818

When any two young people take it into their heads to marry, they are pretty sure by perseverance¹⁶ to carry their point, be they ever so poor, or ever so imprudent, or ever so little likely to be necessary to each other's ultimate comfort.

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Persuasion, 1818

My marriage had its ups and downs like anyone's, but when it came down to it, I knew it was solid. I miss that sort of security, and that sort of connection with someone.

John Scalzi, Old Man's War, 2005

Intimacy¹⁷ is what makes a marriage, not a ceremony, not a piece of paper from the state.

Kathleen Norris

Ain't never seen a ski trip fix a marriage.

Laura Moncur (1969 - ), Merriton: Twelve Hours from San Francisco, 07-11-2007

Papa said that I should never be jealous of another's marriage. Whatever joys I imagine them having are just my imaginings. The reality is far more complicated and vast.

Laura Moncur (1969 - ), The Secret Heart of Charlotte Lucas, 2014

If there was strife¹⁸ and contention¹⁹ in the home, very little else in life could compensate²⁰ for it.

Lawana Blackwell, The Courtship of the Vicar's Daughter, 1998

Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution yet.

Mae West (1892 - 1980)

Don't waste too much time trying' to be a better man, ' cause you ain't never gonna be one without a good woman.

Mark Roberts, Mike & Molly, Peggy's New Beau, May 16, 2011

Always get married early in the morning. That way, if it doesn't work out, you haven't wasted a whole day.

Mickey Rooney (1920 - )