Here are two helpful insights on marriage from some literary sources...
"I knew couples who’d been married almost forever – forty, fifty, sixty years. Seventy-two, in one case. They’d be tending each other’s illnesses, filling in each other’s faulty memories, dealing with the money troubles or the daughter’s suicide, or the grandson’s drug addiction. And I was beginning to suspect that it made no difference whether they’d married the right person.
"Finally, you’re just with who you’re with. You’ve signed on with her, put in a half century with her, grown to know her as well as you know yourself or even better, and she’s become the right person. Or the only person, might be more to the point.
"I wish someone had told me that earlier. I’d have hung on then; I swear I would.”
(From "A Patchwork Planet", by Anne Tyler)
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"I didn't marry you because you were perfect. I didn't even
marry you because I loved you. I married you because you
gave me a promise. That promise made up for your faults.
And the promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect
people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage.
"And when our children were growing up, it wasn't a house that
protected them; and it wasn't our love that protected them - it was that promise."
(From "The Skin of Our Teeth", by Thornton Wilder)
Both quotes found among many others at the smartmarriages.com website.
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