Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle. (Amy Bloom)

Having some welcome peace over Easter to dwell on life in general, i wiled away a moment or two in perusing some famous quotations regarding the subject of matrimony...some of which made me smile to myself and others which made me agree wholeheartedly with their simple wisdom.

For instance, It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages (Friedrich Nietzsche) on one one hand, while on the other...

Only two things are necessary to keep one's wife happy. One is to let her think she is having her own way, the the other, to let her have it (Lyndon B Johnson).

I tend to agree with the sentiments of Mark Twain when he said: After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.

We tend to portray our domestic, wedded bliss either as a heavenly consumation of all our deepest, most heartfelt wishes with our beloved partner and soulmate or as an ongoing series of minor skirmishes between cat and dog.

I very rarely exchange a cross word with my wife, not only because i love making her happy but also because:
a) i'm not a confrontational person and dislike arguments
b) i prefer an easy life
c) she's always right anyway

As Simone Signoret rightly says, Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years. That is what makes a marriage last.

But the final word on the subject should go to American poet Ogden Nash, whose marital advice is not only straight to the point but also very true.

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong admit it;
Whenever you're right shut up.

One Year Ago:
While The Cats Away

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