c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
... A man's wife can hold him devilish uneasy, if she begins to scold and fret, and perplex him, at a time when he has a full load for a railroad car on his mind already.
— David Crockett
Oh, I forgot to tell you the rest of it—he’s a widower now, so they can ride off together into the sunset, their wedding rings glinting.
— Brenda Joyce, An Impossible Attraction
...in response to whatever Alice was struggling with, whatever had caused her to withdraw from him, he had chosen the arms of another woman instead of relying on his own fortitude, as if he'd somehow deserved more comfort than Alice herself had been able to give, or not. Which was part of marriage, after all, part of the vows: enduring those times. And this sense of entitlement seemed to him an even greater sin than infidelity.
— Adam Ross, Mr. Peanut
Divorce is just as contagious as Marriage.
— M.G. Hardie
That would be Axelroot all over, to turn up with an extra wife or two claiming that's how they do it here. Maybe he's been in Africa so long he's forgotten that we Christians have our own system of marriage, and it's called Monotony.
— Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
We all have a childhood dream that when there is love, everything goes like silk, but the reality is that marriage requires a lot of compromise.
— Raquel Welch
Strange, to see what delight we married people have to see these poor fools decoyed into our condition, every man and wife gazing and smiling at them. 
— Samuel Pepys
His face searching the bus windows looked expectant, impatient, and a little anxious. It was a husband's face. Familiar, known, increasing beloved. Mary Ann, I reflected, had an awful lot to learn. And actually, I reflected, I wouldn't be in her shoes right now for all the flowers in Bermuda...having it all to learn again.
— Ann Head
Don't brood; that way madness lies. Don't hesitate, if you catch yourself brooding, to 'take a day off' in the best way you can. Go out and gossip with your friend; get to a theatre where there is a play that will make you laugh; or try a concert or a cinema show - anything that will take you out of yourself. Take the brooding habit in time before it gets too strong a hold of you.
— Blanche Ebbutt, Don'ts for Wives
Luck which so often defies anticipation in matrimonial affairs, giving attraction to what is moderate rather than to what is superior.
— Jane Austen, Emma
Don't expect to drop into matrimonial harmony with the end of the honeymoon
—  you have not thoroughly learned to know each other's foibles by that time.
On page 607, alluding to the end of my first marriage (and carefully remembering to state that that's none of his business), he very sweetly says that I 'might leave a wife, but not a friend.' Nice try. Neat smear. But he shouldn't be so sure....
— Christopher Hitchens
[The book, Anna Karenina, is] a mirror held up to the real, grimy, quotidian interactions of married life, of which romance is little more than a passing mood: marriage, that slippery social contract that, if it works at all, depends more on indulgent disconnection than on some kind of sacred accord.
— Kate Moses, Cakewalk: A Memoir
Sounds like a plan. I owe Tammy a big thank-you.” Ty sighed. “I think I’m too old for this bachelor party crap.”“We’ll be planning yours soon enough.”That was so not appealing, Ty was almost scared. “Let’s just go fishing and call it good.”“Done.
— Erin McCarthy, Hot Finish
Life is fleeting," Samuel said. "A short leap, in the eye of the Eternal, from dust to dust. May you pass it together.
— Eric Corder, Slave
Every bride and groom in the history of civilization has gained weight after their wedding day. It is only a matter of time until archaeologists unearth a married caveman who's wearing a pair of old tux pants that were so tight he couldn't get the zipper closed.
— Peter Scott, There's a Spouse in My House: A Humorous Journey Through the First Years of Marriage
A happy marriage- a love match- is something overwhelming, and overpowering.
— Jude Morgan, Indiscretion
All the tiny things made this mammoth union up, all the times he had picked her up from Sutherland station, made her chicken salad rolls and brought her a Lipton's iced tea, called her about Sunday and fixed Nina's shed door hinge, held her and not fucked her when she was dying with period pain, thought of what she said last night and made something of it the following afternoon, all these unspectacular deposits of love he had made and they were the currency, earning enough to have her see that he was nothing but the right one.
— Brendan Cowell
...We'll exchange rings, we'll throw rice. We'll put down roots.'We don't have roots. We're network people. We have aerials.
— Bruce Sterling, Distraction
He was perfectly capable of looking after himself, although after his marriage he had lost the knack for it. He missed the comfort of all the small things Charlotte did for him,but these were nothing compared to the loneliness. There was no one to talk to, with whom to share his feelings, to laugh, or to simply speak of the day.And he missed the sound of the children's voices, giggling, their running footsteps, their incessant questions and demands for his attention or approval. No one interrupted to say "Look at me, Papa" or "What is this for?" or "What does this mean?" or the favorite "Why?" Peace was not peace anymore, it was simply silence.
— Anne Perry, Half Moon Street
It isn't a bit of use my pretending I'm not crying, because I am... Pause to mop up. Better now.Perhaps it would really be rather dull to be married and settled for life. Liar! It would be heaven.
— Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle
He had to get inside. It was essential that he know everything, the routes she took, her schedule, and the lay of the land. The silver moon glowed overhead, mocking him. Somewhere in the trees an owl hooted its laughter at his failure. Randy--from Spring Cleaning--Coming Summer 2012
— Brandi Salazar, Spring Cleaning
Women are also property in our bible; adultery is a property crime in the Old Testament, not a sex crime.
— Bill Maher, When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden: What the Government Should Be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism
You want to know the secret to raising good kids?”“What’s that? asked Thomas.“High expectations.”Thomas laughed. “Alright, well what’s the secret to a happy marriage?”Clyde smiled back, but his face started to fall, and he chose his words carefully. “… Low expectations.
— Chris Nicolaisen, The Life and Death of the Ericsons
We tell ourselves that intimacy (and marriage) takes two people who are willing to work at it-but, unfortunately, we rarely have the slightest inkling of our "job" assignments in this project.
— David Schnarch, Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love and Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships
New Rule: If you're one of the one-in-three married women who say your pet is a better listener than your husband, you talk too much. And I have some bad news for you: Your dog's not listening, either; he's waiting for food to fall out of your mouth.
— Bill Maher, The New New Rules: A Funny Look At How Everybody But Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass
Marriage and family life give us constant opportunities to deny ourselves for the sake of others. And yet self-denial is not a mask for self-contempt, but the necessary means for achieving self-mastery; for self-mastery makes possible our self-giving and self-fulfillment. Sin is not wanting too much, but settling for too little. It's settling for self-gratification rather than self-fulfillment.
— Scott Hahn, First Comes Love: Finding Your Family in the Church and the Trinity
In your attempts to heal this beloved one, the Holy Spirit finds opportunity to keep the promise of Jesus - and indeed, to heal.
— Walter Wangerin Jr., As For Me And My House: Crafting Your Marriage To Last
Like most marriages, ours eventually wore down all the cartilage. We were a hip needing replacement. Bone on bone, grinding, day in and day out. It worked but it was hard.
— Frederick Barthelme, Elroy Nights
Hey!” The male voice sliced through the noise. Terri ignored him, determined to get back to the bar for her next order. A harsh hand gripped her arm, jerking her back into a firm chest. “I asked your name.” Hot breath reeking of stale beer permeated her sinuses, making her stomach turn, as the tenor of his voice burrowed into her ear. Fear gripped her. Memories of the way Randy would grab her, and where it always ended, slammed into her, making her head spin. Shaking it off, Terri narrowed her eyes and whirled around, jabbing a red lacquered nail into his powder blue polo. “Back off,” she warned, snatching her arm back. He advanced on her, his large frame towering over her. “Just wanna know your name, sweetheart,” he said with a sleazy smile. “No need to get testy.”“You haven’t seen me testy.” As she turned her back on him and continued on her way, he called out to her. “Yet.” Terri--from Spring Cleaning--Coming Summer 2012
— Brandi Salazar, Spring Cleaning
At our age, surely there are better things to sustain us, to sustain a marriage, than the brief flame of passion?" ..."You are mistaken, Ernest," she said at last. "There is only the passionate spark. Without it, two people living together may be lonelier than if they lived quite alone.
— Helen Simonson
The best part (or maybe the worst) of loving you is... that I never have any plan to stop.Because I don't want to reach the end. Too afraid to catch the finish line.Let me do it slowly, wobbly, as if I'm decrepit.Because, by doing that, I have many years to go, never ending days to come... enough time... to stuck... with you.Helplessly addicted, stupidly enraptured... by you.I love you this way, and will keep loving you this way.So come... wear your white gown... because there is a ring, waiting for your finger.A vow, waiting for your mouth to say it out.A man... waiting for you... to make a commitment to spend every tomorrow... together. Go hand in hand, to any kind of future we maybe have.Let's be happy. Let me... to make you happy.Come, marry me, and I will show you what kind of life you will get by laying down your happiness on my hand.I will be thankful for every second, and I will make you feel the same.Come, marry me. Because I want to make you my wife, and me, your husband.Come, start it, and then end it. With me....
— Yuli Pritania, CallaSun
His own parents, the estimable Gilchrists, a couple who had taken the 'till death' part of their own wedding vows so seriously he wouldn't be surprised if they one day throttled one another, had naturally wangled the next best seat in the house: row two, on the aisle.
— Ally Blake, A Night with the Society Playboy
Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it’s a mistake to make a habit of it.
— W. Somerset Maugham
You know your husband truly loves you when he calls you, "Money, I'm home!
— Natalya Vorobyova, Better to be able to love than to be loveable
I want my kids to enjoy romance as part of the entirety of marriage, when it has been earned with commitment and hard work.
— Amy E. Spiegel, Letting Go of Perfect: Women, Expectations, and Authenticity
Among other things a marriage is a system of belief, a story, and though it manifests itself in things that are real enough, the impulse that drives it is ultimately mysterious.
— Rachel Cusk
If a car can represent something, this one represents contradiction. For most of his life, my dad has been able to have any woman he wants. In response, he’s gone through as many as possible, betraying each for someone younger and more absurd. Conversely, for most of his life he’s been able to have any car he wants, too. In response, he’s remained married to this, a 1982 Porsche with a tricky clutch.
— Matthew Norman, Domestic Violets
Marriage is holy and it's private.
— Marlene Van Niekerk, Agaat
...We must say to ourselves something like this: 'Well, when Jesus looked down from the cross, he didn't think "I am giving myself to you because you are so attractive to me." No, he was in agony, and he looked down at us - denying him, abandoning him, and betraying him - and in the greatest act of love in history, he STAYED. He said, "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they are doing." He loved us, not because we were lovely to him, but to make us lovely. That is why I am going to love my spouse.' Speak to your heart like that, and then fulfill the promises you made on your wedding day.
— Timothy J. Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God
When over the years someone has seen you at your worst, and knows you with all your strengths and flaws, yet commits him- or herself to you wholly, it is a consummate experience. To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.
— Timothy J. Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God
So it hadn’t been wrong or dishonest of her to say no this morning, when he asked if she hated him, any more than it had been wrong or dishonest to serve him the elaborate breakfast and to show the elaborate interest in his work, and to kiss him goodbye. The kiss, for that matter, had been exactly right—a perfectly fair, friendly kiss, a kiss for a boy you’d just met at a party, a boy who’d danced with you and made you laugh and walked you home afterwards, talking about himself all the way.The only real mistake, the only wrong and dishonest thing, was ever to have seen him as anything more than that. Oh, for a month or two, just for fun, it might be all right to play a game like that with a boy; but all these years! And all because, in a sentimentally lonely time long ago, she had found it easy and agreeable to believe whatever this one particular boy felt like saying, and to repay him for that pleasure by telling easy, agreeable lies of her own, until each was saying what the other most wanted to hear—until he was saying “I love you” and she was saying “Really, I mean it; you’re the most interesting person I’ve ever met.” What a subtle, treacherous thing it was to let yourself go that way! Because once you’d started it was terribly difficult to stop; soon you were saying “I’m sorry, of course you’re right,” and “Whatever you think is best,” and “You’re the most wonderful and valuable thing in the world,” and the next thing you knew all honesty, all truth, was as far away and glimmering, as hopelessly unattainable as the world of the golden people. Then you discovered you were working at life the way the Laurel Players worked at The Petrified Forest, or the way Steve Kovick worked at his drums—earnest and sloppy and full of pretension and all wrong; you found you were saying yes when you meant no, and “We’ve got to be together on this thing” when you meant the very opposite; then you were breathing gasoline as if it were flowers and abandoning yourself to a delirium of love under the weight of a clumsy, grunting, red-faced man you didn’t even like—Shep Campbell!—and then you were face to face, in total darkness, with the knowledge that you didn’t know who you were. (p.416-7)
— Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road
Marriage has the power to set the course of your life as a whole. If your marriage is strong, even if all the circumstances in your life around you are filled with trouble and weakness, it won't matter. You will be able to move out into the world in strength.
— Timothy J. Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God
The reason that marriage is so painful and yet wonderful is because it is a reflection of the gospel, which is painful and wonderful at once. The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.
— Timothy J. Keller
Sociologists argue that in contemporary Western society the marketplace has become so dominant that the consumer model increasingly characterizes most relationships that historically were covenantal, including marriage. Today we stay connected to people only as long as they are meeting our particular needs at an acceptable cost to us. When we cease to make a profit - that is, when the relationship appears to require more love and affirmation from us than we are getting back - then we "cut our loses" and drop the relationship. This has also been called "commodification," a process by which social relationships are reduced to economic exchange relationships, and so the very idea of "covenant" is disappearing in our culture. Covenant is therefore a concept increasingly foreign to us, and yet the Bible says it is the essence of marriage.
— Timothy J. Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God
I wanted a woman who could get me out of a Third World prison. Life's too short to hang out with people who aren't resourceful.
— Jeff Bezos
In sharp contrast with our culture, the Bible teaches that the essence of marriage is a sacrificial commitment to the good of the other. That means that love is more fundamentally action than emotion. But in talking this way, there is a danger of falling into the opposite error that characterized many ancient and traditional societies. It is possible to see marriage as merely a social transaction, a way of doing your duty to family, tribe and society. Traditional societies made the family the ultimate value in life, and so marriage was a mere transaction that helped your family's interest. By contrast, contemporary Western societies make the individual's happiness the ultimate value, and so marriage becomes primarily an experience of romantic fulfillment. But the Bible sees GOD as the supreme good - not the individual or the family - and that gives us a view of marriage that intimately unites feelings AND duty, passion AND promise. That is because at the heart of the Biblical idea of marriage is the covenant.
— Timothy J. Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God
Life was good. Everything was going right. It was almost scaring him because usually when things were going this well it was the calm before the storm hit.
— Michelle Sutton, Their Separate Ways
Phoebus de Chateaupers likewise came to a 'tragic end': he married.
— Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
Maybe calling it being hitched ain’t the prettiest way to say you’re married, but it’s the truth to my mind and true in a good way, because you’re working together and depending on each other, and you’re sharing the load.
— Ron Rash, The Cove
Oh, dear child. You've got a lot to learn about marriage. Any food can choose the boy who send her heart into a flurry. But there's a big deep divide between desire and devotion. You better not choose the boy who makes you dizzy. No ma'am. You have to choose the one who is steady. Stable. Safe. Choose the one who loves you, through and through, for who you really are. The one who wouldn't change a single thing about you even if he could.
— Julie Cantrell, Into the Free
When she thinks of the toxins built up inside of her from so many years of eating carelessly, of the resentment that has grown steadily over fifteen years of marriage, of the stretch marks and the varicose veins that came from two pregnancies, only one of them fulfilled, she thinks the inside of her body must tell a story like a tree. Were she to break open a bone, perhaps it would look like the inside of a coffee mug - riddled with lines, stained with brown blotches.
— Benjamin Percy, The Wilding
Be sweet to one another. Stay in this beauty and brawl against the world's power of pulling apart. Recall Old Testament terminology: covenant, sacred, sacrifice. And mind always that Adam wasn’t a schlep fruitily duped by Eve. He turned his back on God because he knew that a paradise without her was no paradise at all.
— William Giraldi, Busy Monsters
Conviction says, 'My behavior was wrong.' Satan, on the other hand, floods our hearts with shame. Shame says, 'There is something wrong with me.
— Dale Forehand, Let's Get Real: Bringing Authenticity and Wholeness to Your Marriage
And pray where in earth or heaven are there prudent marriages? Might as well talk about prudent suicides.
— G.K. Chesterton, Manalive
My cousin Roger once told me, on the eve of his third wedding, that he felt marriage was addictive. Then he corrected himself. I mean early marriage, he said. The very start of a marriage. It's like a whole new beginning. You're entirely brand-new people; you haven't made any mistakes yet. You have a new place to live and new dishes and this new kind of, like, identity, this 'we' that gets invited everywhere together now. Why, sometimes your wife will have a brand-new name, even.
— Anne Tyler, The Beginner's Goodbye
The married man and the mother of a Christian family, if they are faithful to their obligations, will fulfill a mission that is as great as it is consoling: that of bringing into the world and forming young souls capable of happiness and love, souls capable of sanctification and transformation in Christ.
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
Terri had already gotten her panties into a bunch just from one little phone call, so he knew coming at her too much too fast would be more trouble than it was worth. He couldn’t exactly beat her into submission, not right away anyway. Although he did enjoy seeing her get all riled up. Nothing tugged at a man’s heartstrings like a pair of mascara smeared eyes. Randy from Spring Cleaning-- Coming Summer 2012
— Brandi Salazar, Spring Cleaning
You don't want some tacky Vegas fly-by. You're serious. You're serious about friendships, about your work, your family. You're serious about Star Wars, and you active dislike of Jar Jar Binks---""Well, God. Come on, anyone who---""You're serious," she continued before he went on a Jar Jar rant, "about living your life on your terms, and being easygoing doesn't negate that one bit. You're serious about what kind of kryptonite is more lethal to Superman.""You have to go with the classic green. I told you, the gold can strip Kryptonians' powers permanently, but---"......"Mkae all the lists you want, Cilla. Love? It's green kryptonite. it powers out all the rest.
— Nora Roberts, Tribute
This is not another book about seeking fulfillment in your singleness. As beings created in God’s image, we were designed for relationship—that’s why extended singleness leaves so many women discontent. It’s also why we should be intentional about finding fulfillment in marriage. Getting married isn’t just something that’s ‘nice if it happens.’ Marriage is what most of us are called to pursue.
— Candace Watters
I will not marry Ashton. However bound by honor to do so, I will not marry Ashton. I will not marry, ever!” “Why not?”“Because I love you, you idiot!
— V.S. Carnes
This good fellowship - camaraderie - usually occurring through the similarity of pursuits is unfortunately seldom super-added to love between the sexes, because men and women associate, not in their labors but in their pleasures merely. Where, however, happy circumstances permit its development, the compounded feeling proves itself to be the only love which is strong as death - that love which many waters cannot quench, nor the floods drown, besides which the passion usually called by the name is as evanescent as steam.
— Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd
It seems almost oxymoronic to believe that this new idealism has led to a new pessimism about marriage, but that is exactly what has happened. In generations past there was far less talk about "compatibility" and finding the ideal soul mate. Today we are looking for someone who accepts us as we are and fulfills our desires, and this creates an unrealistic set of expectations that frustrates both the searchers and the searched for.
— Timothy J. Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God
In Ephesians 5, Paul shows us that even on earth Jesus did not use his power to oppress us but sacrificed everything to bring us into union with him. And this takes us beyond the philosophical to the personal and the practical. If God had the gospel of Jesus's salvation in mind when he established marriage, then marriage only 'works' to the degree that approximates the pattern of God's self-giving love in Christ.
— Timothy J. Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God
What do you mean, 'Angle of Repose?' she asked me when I dreamed we were talking about Grandmother's life, and I said it was the angle at which a man or woman finally lies down. I suppose it is; and yet ... I thought when I began, and still think, that there was another angle in all those years when she was growing old and older and very old, and Grandfather was matching her year for year, a separate line that did not intersect with hers. They were vertical people, they lived by pride, and it is only by the ocular illusion of perspective that they can be said to have met. But he had not been dead two months when she lay down and died too, and that may indicate that at that absolute vanishing point they did intersect. They had intersected for years, for more than he especially would ever admit.
— Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose
[I]t is dangerous for a bride to be apologetic about her husband.
— Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose
…I bet Echo that she couldn't repeat the following line ten times fast: Cupid's Academy counts kissing cousins as completed conquests cause his classes cunningly conspire unconscious couples to copulate and canoodle copiously.
— Tai, Cupid's Academy: Argus' Big Fat Greek Wedding Ring
In short, the Enlightenment privatized marriage, taking it out of the public sphere, and redefined its purpose as individual gratification, not any 'broader good' such as reflecting God's nature, producing character, or raising children. Slowly but surely, this newer understanding of the meaning of marriage has displaced the older ones in Western culture.
— Timothy J. Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God
Why is it that at a bachelor's establishment the servants invariably drink the champagne? I ask merely for information.I attribute it to the superior quality of the wine, sir. I have often observed that in married households the champagne is rarely of a first-rate brand.Good Heavens! Is marriage so demoralizing as that?I believe it is a very pleasant state, sir. I have had very little experience of it myself up to the present. I have only been married once. That was in consequence of a misunderstanding between myself and a young person.
— Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
Husbands and wives, recognize that in marriage you have become one flesh. If you live for your private pleasure at the expense of your spouse, you are living against yourself and destroying your joy. But if you devote yourself with all your heart to the holy joy of your spouse, you will also be living for your joy and making a marriage after the image of Christ and His church.
— John Piper
...And no prenup. Prenups are for people who plan on getting a divorce. I have so much, Bernie. But I've never had anyone to share it with. From now on, what's mine is yours
— Jane Graves, Black Ties and Lullabies
If you're as detached as that, why does the obsolete institution of marriage survive with you?"Oh, it still has its uses. One couldn't be divorced without it.
— Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country
I smiled ruefully to myself, knowing I had already experienced a far greater and deeper union with this man than that which propriety was so busy guarding against. I had seen and accepted our fate here, tonight, on the crest of this ancient hill, and all other ceremonies would be just that: rituals to please the people and make public the commitment that had been made in the privacy of my own heart.
— Persia Woolley, Child of the Northern Spring
When Stephen talked about stalking chamois his whole expression changed. The features became more aquiline, the nose sharpened, the chin narrowed, and his eyes-steel blue - somehow took on the cold brilliance of a northern sky. I am being very frank about my husband. He attracted me at those times, and he repelled me too. This man, I told myself when I first met him, is a perfectionist. And he has no compassion. Gratified like all women who find themselves sought after and desired - a mutual love for Sibelius had been our common ground at our first encounter - after a few weeks in his company I shut my eyes to further judgment, because being with him gave me pleasure. It flattered my self-esteem. The perfectionist, admired by other women, now sought me. Marriage was in every sense a coup. It was only afterwards that I knew myself deceived. ("The Chamois")
— Daphne du Maurier, Echoes from the Macabre: Selected Stories
They seemed so united that I loved them as one person." Lee wrote of his son and daughter-in-law on his daughter-in-law's death.
— Robert E.  Lee
Marriage can bore you but there is a fortitude that comes from it, too. When you need to lean on it, you are so thankful that you can.
— Ellen Tien
My mother insured that a life of petty facts and dutiful farming was kept at bay by her passionate intensity, which nurtured the essential dreaminess of his nature
— Josephine Hart, The Reconstructionist
. . .how he had loved Christine more than he had understood, that sometimes one forgot what it meant, really, to love, the way the tide of a marriage advances and retreats, . .
— Kalotay
It doesn't much signify whom one marries, for one is sure to find out the next morning that it was someone else.
— Samual Rogers
...if he had married Mrs. Albert Grantham for her money I freely admit that no man marries without a reason and with her it would have been next to impossible to think up another one....
— Rex Stout, Champagne for One
Each time he suggested they get married, she said no. They were too happy, precariously so, and she wanted to guard that bond; she feared that marriage would flatten it into a prosaic partnership.
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun
The notion that women shouldn't care about personal success -- or the work that gets them there -- is disengenuous; it is impossible for women not to have jobs anymore, so it doesn't make sense to expect them to structure their lives around getting married. The real failure is our cultural incapacity to make room for women to live and thrive outside of traditional conceptions of femininity and relationships. After all, we can eat without marriage, but not without work.
— Samhita Mukhopadhyay
What makes for a good marriage isn't necessarily what makes for a good romantic relationship. Marriage isn't a passion-fest; it's a partnership formed to run a very small, mundane and often boring non-profit business. And I mean this in a good way.
— Lori Gottlieb, Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough
The obvious effect of frivolous divorce will be frivolous marriage. If people can be separated for no reason they will feel it all the easier to be united for no reason.
— G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce
Any good marriage is secret territory, a necessary white space on society’s map. What others don’t know about it is what makes it yours.
— Stephen King
Til death do us part....The words wrap around my mind like soft, silk binds, and I cherish the imagery. Eternity can only be with this man – there will never be another who knows me so well.
— Dianna Hardy, 'Til Death Do Us Part
Staying married may have long-term benefits. You can elicit much more sympathy from friends over a bad marriage than you ever can from a good divorce.
— P.J. O'Rourke
The deeper you go in ministry, the more the enemy wants to be an irritant in your marriage.
— Kevin Thoman
Oh, why did nobody warn me?" cried Grimes in agony. "I should have been told. They should have told me in so many words. They should have warned me about Flossie, not about the fires of hell. I've risked them, and I don't mind risking them again, but they should have told me about marriage. They should have told me that at the end of that gay journey and flower-strewn path were the hideous lights of home and the voices of children.
— Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall
Three marital bonds exist: Karmic, Dharmic and Cosmic. The first are of pain, misery, hunger, nakedness, disgrace. The second are of success, bliss, love, financial progress, etc. The third are only for the select, pure and holy souls and bring inexhaustible happiness.
— Samael Aun Weor, Beyond Death: What You Should Know about the Afterlife: the Gnostic Book of the Dead
How else to make a dent in an object as immovable as patriarchy itself...?
— Dalma Heyn, Drama Kings: The Men Who Drive Strong Women Crazy
A woman cannot ever be sure of not being married till she is buried, Mrs. Doctor, dear, and meanwhile I will make a batch of cherry pies.
— L.M. Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams
The union of their shared lives could be a masterpiece, even if the colors of one piece clashed with another, even if uneven stitches showed, even if, from time to time, they had to pick out seams, realign the pieces, and sew them back together again. It would not be perfect, but it could be beautiful, if they worked together and persevered.
— Jennifer Chiaverini, The Wedding Quilt
The failure of so many marriages is due to their getting married out of animal passion and not out of love.
— Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education: Learn How to Think, Not What to Think
It is the effect of marriage to engender in several directions some of the reserve it annihilates in one.
— Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native
She was married, true; but if one's husband was always sailing round Cape Horn, was it marriage? If one liked him, was it marriage? If one liked other people, was it marriage? And finally, if one still wished, more than anything in the whole world, to write poetry, was it marriage? She had her doubts.
— Virginia Woolf, Orlando
Arik and Cadie always knew they wouldn't be one of those couples that let problems between them fester. They would immediately address any issues that arose, bring them out into the open, discuss them until they reached a mutually satisfactory conclusion. They felt bad for some of the Founders who they believed had unhappy marriages — couples who were not strong enough to be truthful and open with each other, and even worse, with themselves
— Christian Cantrell
With such a worshipping wife, it was hardly possible that any natural defects in it should not be increased. The extreme sweetness of her temper must hurt his.
— Jane Austen, Emma
Was it possible to love a man who made you feel ridiculous? Of course [.....], love was complicated, that was all. Or was love simple, and marriage was complicated? In seventeen years of marriage David had often left her feeling frustrated, and furious, and disgusted, yes - but he had also made her feel beautiful, and protected, and loved. And oh, what she would give to feel loved right now.
— Laura Brodie, The Widow's Season
Where had he been? Drinking, obviously. Then she started cataloging all the ways he was worthless. On fool impulse, as his most potent available argument against Lily, Bud stuck his hands into his coat pockets and pulled out the many bundles of hundreds and threw them on the bedspread. If you were honest and stupid, you worked a couple of lifetimes for that kind of money, doled out by the hour in pocket-change amounts by asswipe bosses.
— Charles Frazier, Nightwoods
Thank God (my wife) and I were both born poorso the concept of fidelity was allowed to take root in us.
— Allan Wolf, The Watch That Ends the Night
Your marriage," Jake said, almost impatiently. "It's like the grapes. Just a paint job."He went straight to bed.
— Charlie Carillo, Raising Jake
Marriages are made in heaven. When Allah made a creature, He also made the creature's mate
— Farahad Zama, The Wedding Wallah
One of the things you learn about being married is that being with someone day in and day out can make you so comfortable that you risk losing your tact.
— Apol Lejano-Massebieau
Didn’t I stand there once, white-knuckled, gripping the just-lit taper, swearing I’d never go back? And hadn’t you kissed the rain from my mouth?And weren’t we gentle and awed and afraid, knowing we’d stepped from the room of desire into the further room of love? And wasn’t it sacred, the sweetness we licked from each other’s hands? And were we not lovely, then, were we not as lovely as thunder, and damp grass, and flame?
— Cecilia Woloch
Together we agree that there are few tableaus more pathetic than a woman poring over a plethora of self-help books, while in a small café across town her husband is sharing a bottle of Pouilly-Fuissé and fettucini Alfredo with a beautiful woman, fondling her fishnet knee and making careful plans to escape his life.
— Suzanne Finnamore, Split: A Memoir of Divorce
Yes, there is something in me hateful, repulsive," thought Ljewin, as he came away from the Schtscherbazkijs', and walked in the direction of his brother's lodgings. "And I don't get on with other people. Pride, they say. No, I have no pride. If I had any pride, I should not have put myself in such a position".
— Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Marriage has now taken the form of divorce: a prolonged and impassioned negotiation as to how things shall be divided. (from "Feminism, the Body, and the Machine")
— Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays
Of course married life is merely a habit, a bad habit. But then one regrets the loss even of one's worse habits.
— Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
After she married the Duke of York, she immediately transformed his life, bringing him love, understanding, sympathy and support for which he had always craved. She inspired him, she calmed him and she enabled him for the first time in his life to believe in himself. Her sense of humor awoke his own, her natural gaiety lightened him. Their marriage was a rare union in which each complemented and enhanced the other.
— William Shawcross, The Queen Mother: The Official Biography
Warp threads are thicker than the weft, and made of a coarser wool as well. I think of them as like wives. Their work is not obvious - all you can see are the ridges they make under the colorful weft threads. But if they weren't there, there would be no tapestry. Georges would unravel without me.
— Tracy Chevalier, The Lady and the Unicorn
Prue hadn't really been in love with Fabian. Indeed, it was obvious that at times she found him both boring and irritating. But wasn't that what so many marriages were - finding a person boring and irritating and yet loving him? Who could imagine a man who was never boring, or irritating?
— Barbara Pym, Jane and Prudence
I don't agree with you in the least," said Temple— "about marriage, I mean. A man ought to want to get married—""To anybody? Without its being anybody in particular?""Yes," said Temple stoutly. "If he gets to thirty without wanting to marry any one in particular, he ought to look about till he finds some one he does want. It's the right and proper thing to marry and have kiddies.
— E. Nesbit, The Incomplete Amorist
Marriage is like the Middle East, isn't it? There's no solution.
— Willy Russell, Shirley Valentine
She was the curator of her marriage, collector of swift quotes and unremarked-upon sensations.
— Laura Furman, The Mother Who Stayed: Stories
A month ago, Gavin had given his employer four weeks' notice. "I'll get a job around here," he'd told her. "Something low-stress, part-time, maybe. We're not paying rent, and Dad's left us plenty. You should quit, too." A year earlier this news would have filled her with delicious, full fat, chocolate-coated joy. But now, after a grueling routine of shitty work, shitty- weird home life in a house where the shadow of a dead boy walked more solidly than the grownups, shitty headaches, shitty worry about a husband who couldn't keep his dick out of other women, the golden offer just weirded Laine out. She didn't trust it.
— Stephen M. Irwin, The Dead Path
Despite her unrepentant aversion to Italian food, which her husband put down to her nation's historic distrust of Italy, she suddenly declared: "All I want in life is to be able to get a take-away pizza!
— Julia Stuart
If you were looking aside and mentally adding up the hours until the execution of a young killer, all that registered was something dark flashing by. But if you happened to be gazing directly at the window in question and you happened as well to be feeling unprecedentedly calm, four-tenths of a second was more than enough time to identify the falling object as your husband of forty-seven years.
— Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections
I realise I'm behind on this but Rebekah Brooks was married to Ross Kemp of Gangs fame?! And she assaulted him? That explains so much.
— Mandy Wiener, Killing Kebble: An Underworld Exposed
For society, marriage is undoubtedly beneficial. But the burdens of civilized morality are too heavy for many to bear.
— Jed Rubenfeld, The Interpretation of Murder
So she is pretty and he is rich. No doubt society will judge it an excellent match. I know my father does thus a woman he found intolerable for his son is in turn found ideal for his associate. strange isn't it how it's the direction we are viewed from that makes us attractive or abhorrent
— Galen Beckett, The Magicians and Mrs. Quent
Life with a man is more businesslike after it, and money matters work better. And then, you see, if you have rows, and he turns you out of doors, you can get the law to protect you, which you can't otherwise, unless he half-runs you through with a knife, or cracks your noddle with a poker. And if he bolts away from you--I say it friendly, as woman to woman, for there's never any knowing what a man med do-- you'll have the sticks o' furniture, and won't be looked upon as a thief.
— Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
Being laughed at is excellent preparation for marriage.
— Timberlake Wertenbaker, The Ash Girl
Do not economize on the hymeneal rites; do not prune them of their splendor, nor split farthings on the day when you are radiant. A wedding is not house-keeping.
— Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
Perhaps it's simply the dual nature of marriage, the proximity of violence and love.
— Adam Ross, Mr. Peanut
I am flagrantly nuts. I can say this because I am a doctor and I know about these things.
— Deirdre-Elizabeth Parker, The Fugitive's Doctor
To marry is to narrow one's possibilities horribly.
— Jude Morgan, Indiscretion
The price one pays for having a kind man at one’s elbow.
— John Hersey, Fling and Other Stories
We, my dear Mildred, are the observers of life. Let other people get married by all means, the more the merrier. . . . Let Dora marry if she likes. She hasn't your talent for observation.
— Barbara Pym, Excellent Women
We must be more and more to each other, my dear wife.' -Charles Darwin to wife Emma upon loss of daughter Annie
— Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith
Besides what endless brawls by wives are bred,The curtain lecture makes a mournful bed.
— Juvenal, The Satyrs Of Decimus Junius Juvenalis And Of Aulus Persius Flaccus
If an enthusiastic, ardent, and ambitous man marry a wife on whose name there is a stain, which, though it originate in no fault of hers, may be visited by cold and sordid people upon her, and upon his children also: and, in exact proportion to his success in the world, be cast in his teeth, and made the subject of sneers against him: he may-no matter how generous and good his nature- one day repent of the connection he formed in early life; and she may have the pain and torture of knowing that he does so.
— Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
If she was going to remain an engaged lady, then she would make the most of it, and one of the ways to do this would be to enjoy her free time.
— Alexander McCall Smith, The Full Cupboard of Life
You can die trying to get along with a disagreeable man,” she said, and I put a star beside it when I wrote it down and then taped it to the rear-view mirror for the rest of the drive. She hadn’t said “abusive,” I noticed; she had said that just disagreeable could kill you.
— Debby Bull, Blue Jelly: Love Lost & the Lessons of Canning
Newspaper columnist Dave Barry once wrote that the motto of the wedding industry is, 'Money can't buy you happiness, so you might as well give your money to us.
— Denise Fields, Bridal Bargains: Secrets to Throwing a Fantastic Wedding on a Realistic Budget
Yvette had never talked about her marriage - she was a smart girl, and she knew you had no right to complain about someone you got all the way to the altar with. You made that choice, even if you were a child when you did it, and the marriage vow was sacred.
— Maile Meloy
All the best women are married, yes, they are - to all the worst men' There was an infinite slow caress in her tone but she went on rapidly 'So I shall never marry you. How should I marry a kind man, a good man? I am a barbarian, and want a barbarian lover, to crush and scarify me, but you are so tender and I am so crude. When your soft eyes look on me they look on a volcano.
— A.E. Coppard, Dusky Ruth: And Other Stories
We shall me much less miserable together.' -Emma Darwin to husband Charles upon grief for loss of daughter Annie
— Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith
I had seen enough of Western courtship rituals to know European families did little to identify, research and arrange suitable marriages. Instead, to catch the attention of potential partners, Western males had to resort to shows of strength, aggression and virility, rather like wild boars in the mating season, and Western females had to decorate themselves and their homes, like bower birds.
— Ovidia Yu, The Frangipani Tree Mystery
He had slept next to her for thirty-six years, and the mattress felt different without her weight, however slight, and without the rhythm of her breath the dark had no measure. There were times he woke feeling cold from the lack of the heat that once came from between her thighs and behind her knees. He might have even called her, if he could have momentarily forgotten that he already knew everything she could possibly say.
— Nicole Krauss, Forest Dark
A man holy duty is to love a woman.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
A woman holy duty is to respect a man.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
A bride never forgets her wedding ornaments!
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Marriage is the only Institution With One Access: Entrance Only, No Exit, No Outing Option So Look Well Before You Dive Into It
— Jaachynma N.E. Agu, Risk It, Be Different
He considered telling her that she could, and often, if she married him.
— Melanie Dickerson, The Noble Servant
The reason for the prevalence of the principle of union in all the great teachings is that it originates from the Holy marriage between the divine of God’s soul and His divine human.
— Steve Sanchez, Rethinking Redemption
In fact, the Bible tells us that the union of man and woman in marriage points to the climatic final scene - when Christ returns for His church, the bride He died to save (Ephesians 5:31-32).
— Joshua Harris, Boy Meets Girl: Say Hello to Courtship
She found herself suddenly surrounded by a host of assumptions. It was assumed that she trembled for joy in his presence, languished in his absence, existed solely (but humbly) for the furtherance of his ambitions, and thought him the most remarkable man alive, as she herself was the most favoured of women, a belief in which everybody was fondly prepared to indulge her. Such was the unanimity of these assumptions that she was almost persuaded into believing them true.
— Vita Sackville-West, All Passion Spent
I realized I would be forced to run away from home if someone tried to arrange a marriage for me. I didn't want to think about it.
— Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief
And hearing her breathe softly by his side, Wells understood that, as so often happened, his wife knew what he wanted so much better than he did, and that if only he had asked her, he could have saved all that time he taken coming to a decision which, in addition, now proved to be the wrong one. Yes, he told himself, sometimes the best way to find out what we want is to choose what we do not want.
— Félix J. Palma, The Map of Time