“Marriage is the most natural state of man, and... the state in which you will find solid happiness.”
Anniversaries mark the passage of shared time — years of choosing the same person, the same commitment, day after day. These quotes celebrate that persistence with warmth, humor, and the occasional hard truth about what it takes to stay together.
“See, the 'On the Road' that came out in 1957 was censored. A lot of the honesty of it, the bitter honesty, is in the original scroll version that came out in 2007 on the 50-year anniversary. Back then, there was so much post-Second World War fear that was imposed on everybody - 'You must live life this way' - and these guys were bored.”
“Marriage is the most natural state of man, and... the state in which you will find solid happiness.”
“You will reciprocally promise love, loyalty and matrimonial honesty. We only want for you this day that these words constitute the principle of your entire life and that with the help of divine grace you will observe these solemn vows that today, before God, you formulate.”
“Under this window in stormy weather I marry this man and woman together Let none but Him who rules the thunder Put this man and woman asunder.”
“More marriages might survive if the partners realized that sometimes the better comes after the worse.”
“We are not the same persons this year as last nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.”
“I've been in love with the same woman for forty-one years. If my wife finds out, she'll kill me.”
“Why does a woman work ten years to change a man's habits and then complain that he's not the man she married?”
“The London games mark the 24th anniversary of my winning two golds and setting the world record in the heptathlon. Someone is going to want it records are made to be broken - it's only a matter of time. I hope mine will outlive me.”
“Experts on romance say for a happy marriage there has to be more than a passionate love. For a lasting union, they insist, there must be a genuine liking for each other. Which, in my book, is a good definition for friendship.”
“Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can't sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can't sleep with the window open.”
“My mother and stepfather were married 43 years, so I have watched a long marriage. I feel like I had a very good role model for that. And, you know, it's just a number.”
“A lot of good love can happen in ten years.”
“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Peace Corps as it reached its 45th anniversary on March 1, 2006.”
“Never tell a secret to a bride or a groom wait until they have been married longer.”
“One should believe in marriage as in the immortality of the soul.”