Below are our favorite picks of marriage advice. We've included these partnership tips to inspire those who are committed to building strong marriages.
- Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people together through the years.
--Simone Signoret
- There is probably no better way to keep love strong in your marriage than through friendship.
--from the book "12 Hours to a Great Marriage"
- Without goals, couples tend to drift, time passes by without real meaning, and the relationship is not nurtured by the joys of hard-won accomplishments and shared delights. With them, partner's lives are rescued from sameness and boredom, from petty complaints and bickering, as we strive to reach our own person star.
--Patty Howell & Ralph Jones, authors of "World Class Marriage"
- I got gaps; you got gaps; we fill each other's gaps.
--Rocky
- The secret to having a good marriage is to understand that marriage must be total, it must be permanent and it must be equal.
--Frank Pittman
- Many marriages would be better if the husband and the wife clearly understood that they are on the same side.
--Zig Ziglar
- Real giving is when we give to our spouses what's important to them,
whether we understand it, like it, agree with it, or not.
--Michele Weiner-Davis, "Divorce Busting"
- The Time is Now
If you are ever going to love me,
Love me now, while I can know
The sweet and tender feelings
Which from true affection flow.
Love me now
While I am living.
Do not wait until I'm gone
And then have it chiseled in marble,
Sweet words on ice-cold stone.
If you have tender thoughts of me,
Please tell me now.
--Unknown
- Build time into your schedules to be together for mini-conversations: 15 minutes together after work to talk about your challenges at work, a morning walk to talk about goals and hopes or meet for lunch or call during the day just to chat.
--Dr. Stephen R. Covey
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families
- Kiss good-bye and hello. Throw in a hug while you're at it.
--Alanna Webb
LoveStories.com
- Establish a "love account" and make regular deposits, positive experiences that provide your mate energy and security. Talk about each other's likes and dislikes, make a list and have it notarized. Otherwise, you tend to take the pledge to strengthen your marriage too lightly.
--Gary Smalley
President, Today's Family
- Get in the habit of saying what you want rather than what you don't want. Describe a specific behavior that bothers you and explain how you'd like it done. Example: NOT "I get furious when you call and don't leave a message," BUT "Honey, when you call and get the machine, please say why you're calling."
--Diane Sollee
Director, Smartmarriages.com
- What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility.
--Leo Tolstoy
- This [Marriage] is the give-and-take-of life, and this is what marriage is about: keeping up, not getting too far ahead and not falling behind.
--Judith Wallerstein, psychologist, author
- I think a man and a woman should choose each other for life, for the simple reason that a long life with all its accidents is barely enough time for a man and a woman to understand and ... To understand -- is to love.
--John Butler Yeats
- Being married is like having somebody permanently in your corner, it feels limitless, not limited.
--Gloria Steinem, 2000, upon marrying for the first time at age 66
- ACCEPT -- it's the secret of a good marriage
Attraction, Communication, Commitment, Enjoyment, Purpose, Trust
- 10. "What I've Learned" is about friendship, but clearly applies as well to marriage:
I've learned -
that there are people who love you dearly,
but just don't know how to show it.
I've learned -
that just because someone
doesn't love you the way you want
them to, doesn't mean they don't love
you all they can.
I've learned -
that we don't have to change friends
if we understand that friends change.
I've learned -
that two people can look
at the exact same thing
and see something totally different
I've learned -
that just because two people argue,
it doesn't mean they don't love each other.
And just because they don't argue,
it doesn't mean they do.
- anonymous
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Actions During Marriage
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