George Eliot

A woman’s heart must be of such a size and no larger, else it must be pressed small, like Chinese feet; her happiness is to be made as cakes are, by a fixed recipe.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music.

Poor fellow! I think he is in love with you.’ I am not aware of it. And to me it is one of the most odious things in a girl’s life, that there must always be some supposition of falling in love coming between her and any man who is kind to her… I have no ground for the nonsensical vanity of fancying everybody who comes near me is in love with me.

One way of getting an idea of our fellow-countrymen’s miseries is to go and look at their pleasures.

That’s what a man wants in a wife, mostly; he wants to make sure one fool tells him he’s wise.

No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.

In marriage do thou be wise: prefer the person before money, virtue before beauty, the mind before the body; then thou hast a wife, a friend, a companion, a second self.

When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part.

Marriage is the best state for man in general, and every man is a worst man in proportion to the level he is unfit for marriage.

Marriage is distinctly and repeatedly excluded from heaven. Is this because it is thought likely to mar the general felicity?

Many marriages would be better if the husband and the wife clearly understood that they are on the same side.

My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you’ll be happy; if not, you’ll become a philosopher.

Call no man unhappy until he is married.

Many people spend more time in planning the wedding than they do in planning the marriage.

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.

On Oct. 3, 1992, Barack and I were married in Chicago – and every day since, I’ve grown prouder and more in love with him.

Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.

[on Michelle] After about 15 years I finally figured out that she’s always right!

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

Husbands and wives, have fun with each other. I’m convinced it makes all the difference in the world.

I am a black American male from Chicago, who had my rehearsal dinner at Versailles and then got married in Florence with a view of the entire city.