I like her because she smiles at me and means it.
—Anonymous
Be with the ones you love (and the ones that love you.) Ignore everyone else.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
People change and forget to tell each other.
—Lillian Hellman (1905–84) American Playwright, Dramatist, Memoirist
Lust is easy. Love is hard. Like is most important.
—Carl Reiner (1922–2020) American Actor, Comedian, Film Director
Soul-mates are people who bring out the best in you. They are not perfect but are always perfect for you.
—Unknown
I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
There’s one sad truth in life I’ve found
While journeying east and west –
The only folks we really wound
Are those we love the best.
We flatter those we scarcely know,
We please the fleeting guest,
And deal full many a thoughtless blow
To those who love us best.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American Poet, Journalist
You cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
Some people come into our lives and quickly go.
Some people move our souls to dance.
They awaken us to new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom.
Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon.
They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, nd we are never ever the same.
—Flavia Weedn
A long walk and calm conversation are an incredible combination if you want to build a bridge.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
Surely there must be some way to find a husband or, for that matter, merely an escort, without sacrificing one’s privacy, self-respect, and interior decorating scheme. For example, men could be imported from the developing countries, many parts of which are suffering from a man excess, at least in relation to local food supply.
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b.1941) American Social Critic, Essayist
There is no substitute for the comfort supplied by the utterly taken-for-granted relationship.
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh!” he whispered. “Yes, Piglet?” “Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw. “I just wanted to be sure of you”.
—A. A. Milne (1882–1956) British Humorist, Playwright, Children’s Writer
You will always move toward anyone who increases you and away from anyone who makes you less.
—Mike Murdock
When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
My idea of heaven is a great big baked potato and someone to share it with.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
In the coldest February, as in every other month in every other year, the best thing to hold on to in this world is each other.
—Linda Ellerbee (b.1944) American Journalist
You can be right or you can have empathy. You can’t do both.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
The thing that’s between us is fascination, and the fascination resides in our being alike. Whether you’re a man or a woman, the fascination resides in finding out that we’re alike.
—Marguerite Duras (1914–96) French Novelist, Playwright
We can never establish with certainty what part of our relations with others is the result of our emotions—love, antipathy, charity, or malice—and what part is predetermined by the constant power play among individuals.
—Milan Kundera (b.1929) Czech Novelist
Basically, the only thing we need is a hand that rests on our own, that wishes it well, that sometimes guides us.
—Hector Bianciotti (1930–2012) French Novelist
I present myself to you in a form suitable to the relationship I wish to achieve with you.
—Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) Italian Dramatist, Novelist, Short Story Writer, Author
It takes a lot of experience of life to see why some relationships last and others do not. But we do not have to wait for a crisis to get an idea of the future of a particular relationship. Our behavior in little every incidents tells us a great deal.
—Eknath Easwaran (1910–99) Indian Meditation Teacher, Spiritual Author
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
Each relationship nurtures a strength or weakness within you.
—Mike Murdock
Kindness and intelligence don’t always deliver us from the pitfalls and traps: there are always failures of love, of will, of imagination. There is no way to take the danger out of human relationships.
—Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (1934–2002) American Journalist, Essayist, Memoirist, Travel Writer
My attachment has neither the blindness of the beginning, nor the microscopic accuracy of the close of such liaisons.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are. And if our words and our actions come from superficial human relations techniques (the Personality Ethic) rather than from our own inner core (the Character Ethic), others will sense that duplicity. We simply won’t be able to create and sustain the foundation necessary for effective interdependence.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
Do good to your friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
To know when to go away and when to come closer is the key to any lasting relationship.
—Domenico Cieri (b.1954) Mexican Author, Aphorist
Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That’s why it’s a comfort to go hand in hand.
—Emily Kimbrough (1899–1989) American Author, Journalist
Sticks and stones are hard on bones.
Aimed with angry art,
Words can sting like anything
But silence breaks the heart.
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–78) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Writer of Children’s Books
Present your family and friends with their eulogies now – they won’t be able to hear how much you love them and appreciate them from inside the coffin.
—Anonymous
When the body sinks into death, the essence of man is revealed. Man is a knot, a web, a mesh into which relationships are tied. Only those relationships matter. The body is an old crock that nobody will miss. I have never known a man to think of himself when dying. Never.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
All things need watching, working at, caring for and marriage is no exception. Marriage is not something to be treated indifferently, or abused or something that simply takes care of itself. Nothing neglected will remain as it was or is, or will fail to deteriorate. All things need attention care and concern and especially so in this most sensitive of all relationships of life.
—Richard L. Evans (1906–71) American Mormon Religions Leader
A relationship, I think, is like a shark, you know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.
—A. A. Milne (1882–1956) British Humorist, Playwright, Children’s Writer
It takes two men to make a brother.
—Israel Zangwill (1864–1926) English Playwright, Novelist, Zionist Activist
Some of the biggest challenges in relationships come from the fact that most people enter a relationship in order to get something: they’re trying to find someone who’s going to make them feel good. In reality, the only way a relationship will last is if you see your relationship as a place that you go to give, and not a place that you go to take.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
No road is long with good company.
—Turkish Proverb
There is no difference between robbing a Jew or robbing a Gentile; if any, to rob a Gentile is a greater sin than to rob a Jew.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Human relationships always help us to carry on because they always presuppose further developments, a future—and also because we live as if our only task was precisely to have relationships with other people.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
The “Inside-Out” approach to personal and interpersonal effectiveness means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self—with your paradigms, your character, and your motives. The inside-out approach says that private victories precede public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves recedes making and keeping promises to others. It says it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
The easiest kind of relationship is with ten thousand people, the hardest is with one.
—Joan Baez (b.1941) American Singer, Songwriter, Musician
If we are a metaphor of the universe, the human couple is the metaphor par excellence, the point of intersection of all forces and the seed of all forms. The couple is time recaptured, the return to the time before time.
—Octavio Paz (1914–98) Mexican Poet, Diplomat
Good company upon the road is the shortest cut.
—Unknown