50 Happy Marriage Quotes for Your Happily Ever After

Every couple that’s been married for a significant amount of time is always asked the same question: What’s the secret to a happy marriage? There’s the traditional advice like “never go to bed angry,” and the classic reminder that marriage requires compromise. But in order to live happily ever after, your marriage must be a happy one, filled with the kind of deep passion and radical acceptance that cultivates a blissful bond between two people. Of course, no marriage is happy all the time, but by focusing on your partner’s strengths and expressing your love and appreciation every day, you’ll be celebrating 50 years of wedded bliss in no time. 

To celebrate the joys of marriage, we’ve put together a list of the best happy marriage quotes of all time. Whether you’re engaged, newly married, or going on multiple decades married to the same person, you’ll appreciate these 50 happy marriage quotes from literature, film, comedians, and celebrities.

1. “A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.” — André Maurois
2. “Happy is the man who finds a true friend, and far happier is he who finds that true friend in his wife.” — Franz Schubert
3. “Sensual pleasures have the fleeting brilliance of a comet; a happy marriage has the tranquility of a lovely sunset.” — Ann Landers
4. “To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.” — Mark Twain
5. “I love being married. It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.” — Rita Rudner
6. “The secret of a happy marriage is finding the right person. You know they're right if you love to be with them all the time.” — Julia Child
7. “Marriage is like watching the color of leaves in the fall; ever changing and more stunningly beautiful with each passing day.” — Fawn Weaver
8. “The highest happiness on earth is marriage.” — William Lyon Phelps
9. “Marriage is a risk; I think it’s a great and glorious risk, as long as you embark on the adventure in the same spirit.” — Cate Blanchett
10. “A good marriage is one where each partner secretly suspects they got the better deal.” — Unknown
11. “To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow — this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
12. "Marriage is like a graph – it has its ups and downs and as long as things bounce back up again, you’ve got a good marriage. If it heads straight down, then you’ve got some problems!" — Julie Andrews
13. “We have a couple of rules in our relationship. The first rule is that I make her feel like she’s getting everything. The second rule is that I actually do let her have her way in everything. And, so far, it’s working.” — Justin Timberlake
14. “I got gaps; you got gaps; we fill each other’s gaps...Love is absolute loyalty. People fade, looks fade, but loyalty never fades. You can depend so much on certain people; you can set your watch by them. And that’s love, even if it doesn’t seem very exciting." — Sylvester Stallone
15. "A simple 'I love you' means more than money." — Frank Sinatra
16. "When you end up happily married, even the failed relationships have worked beautifully to get you there." — Julia Roberts
17. "There's no bad consequence to loving fully, with all your heart. You always gain by giving love. It's like that beautiful Shakespeare quote from Romeo and Juliet: 'My bounty is as boundless as the sea. My love is deep. The more I give to thee, the more I have. For both are infinite.'" — Reese Witherspoon
18. “A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.” — Ruth Bell Graham
19. “I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate then when I fall asleep your eyes close.” — Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets
20. “Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music, and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays." — Henny Youngman
21. “Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” — Maya Angelou
22. “A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.” — Mignon McLaughlin
23. “If I had a flower for every time thought of you… I could walk through my garden forever.” — Alfred Tennyson
24. “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” — Lao Tzu
25. “Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.” — Plato
26. “Look, you want to know what marriage is really like? Fine. You wake up, she's there. You come back from work, she's there. You fall asleep, she's there. You eat dinner, she's there. You know? I mean, I know that sounds like a bad thing, but it's not." — Ray Barone
27. “There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.” — Martin Luther
28. “A great marriage is not when the ‘perfect couple’ comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.” — Dave Meurer
29. "When a marriage works, nothing on Earth can take its place." — Helen Gahagan Douglas
30. "This is what marriage really means: helping one another to reach the full status of being persons, responsible beings who do not run away from life." — Paul Tournier
31. "Almost no one is foolish enough to imagine that he automatically deserves great success in any field of activity, yet almost everyone believes that he automatically deserves success in marriage." — Sydney J. Harris
32. "Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition." — Alexander Smith
33. “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” — Meg Ryan as Sally Albright in When Harry Met Sally
34. “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.” — Sam Levenson
35. “To find someone who will love you for no reason, and to shower that person with reasons, that is the ultimate happiness.” — Robert Brault
36. “After a while, you just want to be with the one that makes you laugh.” — Chris Noth as Mr. Big, Sex and the City
37. “Being someone’s first love may be great, but to be their last is beyond perfect.” — Anonymous
38. “The greatest marriages are built on teamwork. A mutual respect, a healthy dose of admiration, and a never-ending portion of love and grace.” – Fawn Weaver
39. “Love doesn’t make the world go round; love is what makes the ride worthwhile.” — Elizabeth Browning
40. “Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is.” — Louis de Bernieres
41. “Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love and they blossom when we love the ones we marry.” — Tom Mullen
42. “I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.” — Roy Croft
43. “Love is like a friendship caught on fire.” — Bruce Lee
44. “Marriage is a mosaic you build with your spouse. Millions of tiny moments that create your love story.” — Jennifer Smith
45. “Marriage, ultimately, is the practice of becoming passionate friends.” — Harville Hendrix
46. “Marriage is not a noun; it’s a verb. It isn’t something you get. It’s something you do. It’s the way you love your partner every day.” — Barbara De Angelis
47. “Being in a long marriage is a little bit like that nice cup of coffee every morning – I might have it every day, but I still enjoy it.” — Stephen Gaines
48. “Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love, and they blossom when we love the ones we married.” — Tim Mullen
49. “Marriage is the highest state of friendship. If happy, it lessens our cares by dividing them, at the same time that it doubles our pleasures by mutual participation.” — Samuel Richardson
50. “The secret of a happy marriage remains a secret.” — Henny Youngman