The marriage state, with and without the affection suitable to it, is the completest image of Heaven and Hell we are capable of receiving in this life.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, Politician
Marriage is socialism among two people.
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b.1941) American Social Critic, Essayist
A husband is a plaster that cures all the ills of girlhood.
—Moliere (1622–73) French Playwright
True love stories never have endings.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Novelist, Aviator
Marriages are not as they are made, but as they turn out.
—Italian Proverb
Wedding is destiny, and hanging likewise.
—John Heywood
I think like any marriage, especially when you’ve had divorced parents like myself, you’d want to try even harder to make it work.
—Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–97) English Royal, Humanitarian, Peace Activist
Well married a person has wings, poorly married shackles.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table than when his wife talks Greek.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Whether by design or accident, the fact remains that, with one small exception, no girl with a fancy Christian name has ever diverted the eye of a President of the United States to the matrimonial altar.
—George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) American Drama Critic, Editor
Weeping bride, laughing wife, laughing bride, weeping wife.
—German Proverb
He believes that marriage and a career don’t mix. So after the wedding he plans to quit his job.
—Indian Proverb
In America a woman loses her independence for ever in the bonds of matrimony. While there is less constraint on girls there than anywhere else, a wife submits to stricter obligations. For the former, her father’s house is a home of freedom and pleasure; for the latter, her husband’s is almost a cloister.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
Choose your wife as you wish your children to be.
—Common Proverb
The problem with marriage is that it ends every night after making love, and it must be rebuilt every morning before breakfast.
—Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927–2014) Colombian Novelist, Short-Story Writer
Constancy is the complement of all other human virtues.
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–72) Italian Patriot, Political Leader
A little in drink, but at all times your faithful husband.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, Politician
I never wanted to get married. The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July rocket.
—Sylvia Plath (1932–63) American Poet, Novelist
This would be a much better world if more married couples were as deeply in love as they are in debt.
—Earl Wilson (1907–87) American Broadway Gossip Columnist
Marriage! Nothing else demands so much from a man!
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
A marriage based on full confidence, based on complete and unqualified frankness on both sides; they are not keeping anything back; there’s no deception underneath it all. If I might so put it, it’s an agreement for the mutual forgiveness of sin.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
—Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) French General, Statesman
Marriage brings one into fatal connection with custom and tradition, and traditions and customs are like the wind and weather, altogether incalculable.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
Marriage teaches you to live alone.
—French Proverb
What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined for life—to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent, unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Pleasant the snaffle of courtship, improving the manners and carriage; but the colt who is wise will abstain from the terrible throw bit of Marriage.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
If you would have a good wife, marry one who has been a good daughter.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
Matrimony is the high sea for which no compass has yet to be invented.
—Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German Poet, Writer
In taking out an insurance policy one pays for it in dollars and cents, always at liberty to discontinue payments. If, however, woman’s premium is a husband, she pays for it with her name, her privacy, her self-respect, her very life, “until death doth part.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940) Lithuanian-American Anarchist, Feminist
Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it’s a mistake to make a habit out of it.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
I first learned the concepts of non-violence in my marriage.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
The dread of loneliness is greater than the fear of bondage, so we get married.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Marriage with a good woman is a harbor in the tempest of life; with a bad woman, it is a tempest in the harbor.
—Jean Antoine Petit-Senn (1792–1870) Swiss Poet
An undutiful daughter will prove an unmanageable wife.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
A man in love is incomplete until he has married. Then he’s finished.
—Zsa Zsa Gabor (1919–2016) Hungarian-born Film Actress
Marriage is like wine. It is not properly judged until the second glass.
—Douglas William Jerrold (1803–57) English Writer, Dramatist, Wit
You’ll repent if you marry, and repent if you don’t.
—Common Proverb
I will remember always that marriage, like life, is a journey – not a destination – and that its treasures are found not just at the end but all along the way.
—Anonymous
To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job.
—Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) French Philosopher, Writer, Feminist
A good marriage is one which allows for change and growth in the individuals and in the way they express their love.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
The Christian religion, by confining marriage to pairs, and rendering the relation indissoluble, has by these two things done more toward the peace, happiness, settlement, and civilization of the world, than by any other part in this whole scheme of divine wisdom.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
A good marriage is that in which each appoints the other the guardian of his solitude, and shows him this confidence, the greatest in his power to bestow.
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian Poet
The kindest and the happiest pair, will find occasion to forbear; find something every day they live, to pity, and perhaps forgive.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Each coming together of man and wife, even if they have been mated for many years, should be a fresh adventure; each winning should necessitate a fresh wooing.
—Marie Stopes (1880–1958) British Author, Social Activist
Marriage must be a relation either of sympathy or of conquest.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Fidelity: A virtue peculiar to those who are about to be betrayed.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
I take my wife everywhere I go. She always finds her way back.
—Henny Youngman (1906–98) Anglo-American Comedian, Violinist
A perfect wife is one who helps her husband with the dishes.
—Unknown
In all of the wedding cake, hope is the sweetest of plums.
—Douglas William Jerrold (1803–57) English Writer, Dramatist, Wit