17 Honest Quotes About Marriage that Describe Exactly What Being Married is Like

The article is developed in partnership with BetterHelp.

Whether you recently got married or have been together for years now, every marriage goes through ups and downs. In fact, a happy marriage doesn’t necessarily mean that everything in the relationship is rosy, and you never fight. A good marriage means that both partners are committed to each other and willing to work through whatever life throws at them together. 

Healthy couples realize that having lots of things, like a big house, a fancy car, or lots of money in their account, might be nice on paper, but it doesn’t make for a successful marriage. They understand that values like respect, trust, communication, and vulnerability are far more important for a lasting relationship. On the other hand, egotistical attitudes, toxic power dynamics, cheating, keeping secrets, and a lack of proper communication can ruin a perfectly happy marriage in an instance.  

So to help you put into words what can sometimes be so hard to express about love and marriage, we’ve put together a list of funny, inspiring, insightful, and brutally honest quotes about marriage that will make you feel all the feels.

17 Quotes About Marriage 

“The longest sentence you can form with two words is: I do.” 

– H. L. Mencken

“If I get married, I want to be very married.”

– Audrey Hepburn

“Happily ever after is not a fairy tale. It’s a choice.”

– Fawn Weaver

“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.”

– Mignon McLaughlin

“A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.” —André Maurois

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

– Friedrich Nietzsche

“Before you marry a person you should first make them use a computer with slow internet to see who they really are.” 

– Will Ferrell

“What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life–to strength each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?”

– George Eliot

“Marriage is not just spiritual communion, it is also remembering to take out the trash.”

– Joyce Brothers

“The secret of a happy marriage is finding the right person. You know they’re right if you love to be with them all the time.” 

– Julia Child

“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.”

– Plato

“A husband and wife may disagree on many things but they must absolutely agree on this: to never, ever give up.” 

– Unknown

“If he can’t handle you at your worst, then he does not deserve you at your best. Real love means seeing beyond the words spoken out of pain, and instead seeing a person’s soul.”

 – Shannon L. Alder

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate then when I fall asleep your eyes close.” 

– Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

“My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my love to marry me.” 

– Sir Winston Churchill

“A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.” 

– Robert Quillen

“I don’t want to be married just to be married. I can’t think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can’t talk to, or worse, someone I can’t be silent with.” 

– Mary Ann Shaffer

“What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are but how you deal with incompatibility.” 

– Leo Tolstoy

In closing

Marriage is not always easy, but if you’re with a person who loves, cherishes you, and respects you, all the efforts and sacrifices you make together will pay off. And if you need a little extra help improving communication, working through unresolved issues, or just learning new tools for having a happier, healthier marriage, why not give marriage therapy a shot? Visit here to read more about how relationship counseling helps couples thrive.