Samuel Butler

The youth of an art is, like the youth of anything else, its most interesting period. When it has come to the knowledge of good and evil it is stronger, but we care less about it.

Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character.

A drunkard would not give money to sober people. He said they would only eat it, and buy clothes and send their children to school with it.

Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning.

The history of art is the history of revivals.

In matrimony, to hesitate is sometimes to be saved.

It is a woman’s business to get married as soon as possible, and a man’s to keep unmarried as long as he can.

If you treat your wife like a thoroughbred, you’ll never end up with a nag.

Husbands and wives, first be faithful to each other. Second, keep the romance going all of your life by courting each other every day.

The greatest day of my life was the day I married Mrs. Ford.

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

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.

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.

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 Michelle] A dedicated mom, a good friend, and someone who’s not afraid to poke a little fun at herself from time to time

They that Marry for Money cannot have the true Satisfaction of Marriage; the requisite Means being wanting.

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

He didn’t dare to, because his father had a weak heart and habitually threatened to drop dead if anybody hurt his feelings. You may have noticed that people with weak hearts are the tyrants of English married life.

What Michelle has done is to remind me every day of the virtues of order.

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

By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher.