125 Marriage Quotes That Truly Express What Marriage Is Like

Anyone who's ever been married will probably tell you it's a wild ride. You meet someone, go on a few dates, decide they’re your person, and end up sharing a life, a bed, and a Netflix password until further notice. It’s equal parts romantic and challenging, which is probably why marriage quotes hit so hard. They remind us that love isn’t just candlelight and anniversaries; it’s commitment, chaos, compromise, and trying not to laugh in public at an inside joke you’ve had for years.

And while, yes, many parts of marriage can feel romantic, it isn't always a fairytale. It’s a very real, ongoing journey that (hopefully!) lasts long after the honeymoon stage and well into your “complaining about your back pain” years. It’s choosing the same person even when they leave every cabinet door open. It’s learning to communicate, compromise, and yes, occasionally apologize. It’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do with another human, but also, somehow, the most rewarding.

Still, finding new ways to say all that—whether you’re looking for romantic quotes about marriage to use in your wedding vows, funny marriage quotes for your next anniversary caption, or cute love quotes for your SO’s birthday card—isn’t exactly easy. And “I love you, you’re the best,” while a classic, gets a little old year after year, no?

Luckily, you’ve come to the right place, where marriage quotes thrive for all your très romantique situations. Ahead, we’ve rounded up 125 marriage quotes from movies, songs, books, and famous folks that’ll make you laugh, cry, and remember why love is worth it (even when your partner steals the covers. Again).

Marriage Quotes from TV Shows & Movies

“You make me want to be a better man.” —Melvin Udall, As Good as It Gets
“After a while, you just want to be with the one that makes you laugh.” —Mr. Big, Sex and the City
“You make me happier than I ever thought I could be, and if you let me, I will spend the rest of my life trying to make you feel the same way.” —Chandler Bing, Friends
“In case I forget to tell you later… I had a really good time tonight.” —Vivian Ward, Pretty Woman
“I met my soul mate when I was fifteen years old, and I’ve loved her every minute, every day since I first bought her that mint chocolate chip cone. I have loved her through the birth of our three perfect children. I have loved her, even when I’ve hated her. You married couples will understand that one. And I don’t know if it’s gonna work out, I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I’m sorry, Robbie. I can’t give you that. But I can promise you this: I will never stop trying. Because when you find the one, you never give up.” —Cal Weaver, Crazy, Stupid, Love
“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.” —Harry Burns, When Harry Met Sally…
“It’s not gonna be easy. It’s going to be really hard. We’re gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you.” —Noah Calhoun, The Notebook
“To me, you are perfect.” —Mark, Love Actually
“I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.” —Arwen Undómiel, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
“You complete me.” —Jerry Maguire, Jerry Maguire
“I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.” —Anna Scott, Notting Hill
“If you’re a bird, I’m a bird.” —Noah Calhoun, The Notebook
"Sometimes, in life and in love, risks must be taken. One never knows what may happen." —Moira Rose, Schitt’s Creek
“I've never liked a smile as much as I like yours. I've never felt as safe as I do when I'm with you. I've never known love like I have when we're together. It's not been an easy road for me. But... knowing that you will always be there for me at the end of it, makes everything okay.” —David Rose, Schitt’s Creek
“I love you and I like you.” —Leslie Knope, Parks and Recreation
“You’re my person.” —Cristina Yang, Grey’s Anatomy
“I think I’d miss you even if we’d never met.” —Nick Mercer, The Wedding Date
“Love isn't about grand gestures, or the moon and the stars. It's just dumb luck. And sometimes, you meet someone who feels the same way.” —Otis Milburn, Sex Education
“Ever since I was young I never really understood anything about the world, and I never understood anything that happened in my life. The only thing that ever made sense to me was you, and how I felt about you. That's all I've ever known, and that's enough, that's enough for me for the rest of my life.” —Cory Matthews, Boy Meets World
“It’s like in that moment the whole universe existed just to bring us together.” —Jonathan Trager, Serendipity
“It was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together.” —Sam Baldwin, Sleepless in Seattle
“You had me at hello.” —Dorothy Boyd, Jerry Maguire
“I love you. I knew it the minute I met you.” —Pat Solatano, Silver Linings Playbook
“You jump, I jump, remember?” —Rose DeWitt Bukater, Titanic
“In my opinion, the best thing you can do is find someone who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you.” —Mac MacGuff, Juno

Marriage Quotes from Songs

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” —Nat King Cole, "Nature Boy"
“Though I know I'll never lose affection, for people and things that went before. I know I'll often stop and think about them; in my life, I love you more.” —The Beatles, "In My Life"
“Take my hand, take my whole life too, for I can’t help falling in love with you.” —Elvis Presley, “Can’t Help Falling in Love”
“All of me loves all of you. Love your curves and all your edges, all your perfect imperfections.” —John Legend, “All of Me”
“I could make you happy, make your dreams come true. Nothing that I wouldn’t do.” —Adele, “Make You Feel My Love”
“At last, my love has come along. My lonely days are over, and life is like a song.” —Etta James, “At Last”
“You’re still the one I run to, the one that I belong to.” —Shania Twain, “You’re Still the One”
“I hope you don’t mind that I put down in words how wonderful life is while you’re in the world.” —Elton John, “Your Song”
“You are the best thing that’s ever been mine.” —Taylor Swift, “Mine”
“I have died every day waiting for you. Darling, don’t be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years.” —Christina Perri, “A Thousand Years”
“How sweet it is to be loved by you.” —Marvin Gaye, “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)”
“Don't wanna close my eyes. I don't wanna to fall asleep. 'Cause I'd miss you baby, and I don't wanna miss a thing.” —Aerosmith, “I Don't Want to Miss a Thing”
“You and me together, through the days and nights. I don’t worry ’cause everything’s gonna be alright.” —Alicia Keys, “No One”
“I found a love to carry more than just my secrets, to carry love, to carry children of our own.” —Ed Sheeran, “Perfect”
“I belong with you, you belong with me, you’re my sweetheart.” —The Lumineers, “Ho Hey”
“Look at the stars, look how they shine for you.” —Coldplay, “Yellow”
I'm so in love with you. Whatever you want to do is all right with me. 'Cause you make me feel so brand new, and I want to spend my life with you." —Al Green, "Let's Stay Together"
“I never loved someone the way that I love you.” —Alicia Keys, “If I Ain’t Got You”
“You're the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be.” —Goo Goo Dolls, “Iris”
“Our time is short. This is our fate, I'm yours.” —Jason Mraz, “I’m Yours”
“We've been together since way back when. Sometimes I never want to see you again, but I want you to know, after all these years, you're still the one I want whispering in my ear.” —Orleans, "Still the One"
“When I see your face, there’s not a thing that I would change.” —Bruno Mars, “Just the Way You Are”
“I just want you. Have a couple kids, got the whole block looking like you. We tell the world to leave us thе fuck alone, and they do, wow. Got me drеaming about a driveway with a basketball hoop.” —Taylor Swift, “Wi$h Li$t”
“You’re every line, you’re every word, you’re everything.” —Michael Bublé, “Everything”
“You're as smooth as Tennessee whiskey. You're as sweet as strawberry wine. You're as warm as a glass of brandy, and honey, I stay stoned on your love all the time.” —Chris Stapleton, “Tennessee Whiskey”

Marriage Quotes from Literature

“No measure of time with you will be long enough, but we'll start with forever.” —Stephenie Meyer, Breaking Dawn
“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” - Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
“I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. Once for all; I loved her nonetheless because I knew it, and it had no more influence in restraining me, than if I had devoutly believed her to be human perfection.” —Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep. The more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.” —William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
“I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.” —William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
“You should be kissed, and often, and by someone who knows how.” —Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind
“I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who’s ever lived: I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough.” —Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
“I've always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.” —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
“I don’t know what lies around the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best does.” —L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
“Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love.” —William Shakespeare, Hamlet
“You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you.” —Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice (movie)
“Whatever happens tomorrow, we had today.” —David Nicholls, One Day
“After all this time?” “Always.” —J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
“We are asleep until we fall in love.” —Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
“He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.” —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
“I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” —John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
“I would rather spend one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.” —J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
“I love you, thorns and all.” —Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses
“My sun and stars.” “Moon of my life.” —George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
“I don't want sunbursts or marble halls, I just want you.” ―L.M. Montgomery, Anne of the Island
“I don’t know who I am when we’re not us.” —Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus
“There are darknesses in life and there are lights; you are one of the lights, the light of all lights.” —Bram Stoker, Dracula
“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.” —Jane Austen, Persuasion
“We’re bound to each other for as long as the world exists.” —Lisa Kleypas, Marrying Winterborne
“People think that intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth. When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you can show yourself to them, when you stand in front of them bare and their response is ‘You’re safe with me’—that’s intimacy.” —Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Marriage Quotes from Celebrities

“The most harrowing idea would be that I would spend any part of my life without her, because that would be a level of loneliness, an irreplaceable, irredeemable emotional desolation that I could not possibly contemplate.” —Stephen Colbert
“The secret is that you just take care of each other and admire each other and support each other and you get that back.” —Ina Garten
"I believe in love. I think it just hits you and pulls the rug out from underneath you and, like a baby, demands your attention every minute of the day." —Jodi Picoult
“If you’re in a fight with your husband, just stop and be vulnerable. Say, ‘I’m so scared this fight is going to lead to us breaking up and I don’t want to break up with you.’ Like, say that in the middle of a fight about the garbage and sh*t is gonna change.” —Kristen Bell
“Sometimes, if you’re not really mad about it, don’t make yourself mad about it because you think you should be. Like, who cares?!” —Tina Fey
“Before you marry a person, you should first make them use a computer with slow internet to see who they really are.” —Will Ferrell
“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
“He does tell me every single day of my life I'm beautiful, and I do know a lot of women live without that. And it does matter, someone just telling you that.” —Mary Steenburgen
“We were married for better or worse. I couldn’t have done better, and she couldn’t have done worse.” —Henny Youngman
“It’s fun to complain with someone. Nothing brings us together more than complaining about other people. That might be the thing that holds us together more than anything.” —Lew Schneider
“We just like each other. You start there… I still can’t believe my wife goes out with me. If we were in high school, and I was just funny, I’d never have the courage to talk to her.” —Tom Hanks
“I asked my dad once, ‘How did you and Mum stay married for 33 years?’ And he said, ‘Well, we never wanted to get divorced at the same time.’” —Gwyneth Paltrow
“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.” —Marilyn Monroe
“Love is like a friendship caught on fire.” —Bruce Lee
“When you end up happily married, even the failed relationships have worked beautifully to get you there.” —Julia Roberts
“There's someone behind you on your good days and someone in front of you on your bad days.” —Emily Blunt
“There's no bad consequence to loving fully, with all your heart. You always gain by giving love.” —Reese Witherspoon
“Only married people can understand how you can be miserable and happy at the same time.” —Chris Rock
“Spend a few minutes a day really listening to your spouse. No matter how stupid his problems sound to you.” —Megan Mullally
“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
“I got gaps; you got gaps; we fill each other’s gaps.” —Sylvester Stallone
“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” —Audrey Hepburn
“Your self-worth is determined by you. You don’t have to depend on someone telling you who you are.” —Beyoncé
“Wait until you find that one person who makes you feel good about yourself every single day and is not expecting you to change but to grow.” —Zoe Saldaña
“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!” —Dame Julie Andrews

Marriage Quotes from Writers and Thinkers

“Just in case in case you ever foolishly forget; I'm never not thinking of you.” —Virginia Woolf
“I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity, and her flaming self-respect.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
“To catch a husband is an art. To hold him is a job.” —Simone de Beauvoir
“You don't love because, you love despite; not for the virtues, but despite the faults.” —William Faulkner
“Love is a friendship set to music.” —Joseph Campbell
“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.” —Mignon McLaughlin
“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” —Maya Angelou
“A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.” —Ruth Bell Graham
“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
“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
“‘I am’ is supposedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that ‘I do’ is the longest sentence?” —George Carlin
“A good marriage is a contest of generosity.” —Diane Sawyer
“In every good marriage, it pays sometimes to be a little deaf.” —Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“I love my husband, but no matter where we are, I make him sleep closest to the door so if anything happens, he gets murdered first.” —Jessica Valenti
“Marriage has no guarantees. If that’s what you’re looking for, go live with a car battery.” —Erma Bombeck
“My most brilliant achievement was my ability to persuade my wife to marry me.” —Winston Churchill
“There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.” —Martin Luther
“Being married is like having somebody permanently in your corner. It feels limitless, not limited.” —Gloria Steinem
“Marriage is the most expensive way to get your laundry done for free.” —Nora Ephron
“Fall in love with yourself, with life, and then with whoever you want.” —Frida Kahlo
“To keep your marriage brimming with love in the loving cup, whenever you’re wrong, admit it; whenever you’re right, shut up.” —Ogden Nash
“The most important career choice you'll make is who you marry.” —Sheryl Sandberg
“It’s important to marry somebody who is your equal and to marry somebody and to be with somebody who wants you to win as much as you want them to win.” —Michelle Obama
“Getting married is like trading the adoration of many for the sarcasm of one.” —Mae West
“A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.” —Andre Maurois