For two people in a marriage to live together day after day
is unquestionably the one miracle the Vatican has overlooked.
The man who never in his life
Has washed the dishes with his wife
Or polished up the silver plate -
He still is largely celibate.
Wives are young men's mistresses;
companions for middle age; and old men's nurses.
Francis Bacon, "Of Marriage and Single Life,"
If you made a list of the reasons why any couple got married,
and another list of the reasons for their divorce,
you'd have a hell of a lot of overlapping.
Marriage is a book of which the first chapter is written in poetry
and the remaining chapters in prose.
One of the good things that come of a true marriage is,
that there is one face on which changes come without your seeing them;
or rather there is one face which you can still see the same,
through all the shadows which years have gathered upon it.
The problem with marriage is that it ends every night after making love,
and it must be rebuilt every morning before breakfast.
Pity all newlyweds. She cooks something nice for him,
and he brings her flowers, and they kiss and think:
How easy marriage is.
In every marriage more than a week old,
there are grounds for divorce.
The trick is to find, and continue to find, grounds for marriage.
One advantage of marriage is that,
when you fall out of love with him or he falls out of love with you,
it keeps you together until you fall in again.