Love & Romance

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul. (Judy Garland)

So these three things remain:  Faith, Hope, and Love.  But the best one of these is Love. (1 Cor 13:13)

Only choose in marriage a man whom you would choose as a friend if he were a woman. (Joseph Joubert)

Christ died because of Sin; He rose because of Love.

Love is more important than anything else. (Coloss 3:14)

A lot of people wonder how you know if you're really in love. Just ask yourself this one question: "Would I mind being  destroyed financially by this person?"

Love is like an hourglass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties

My wife Mary and I have been married for forty-seven years and not once have we had an argument serious enough to consider divorce; murder, yes, but divorce, never. (Jack Benny)

It is a risk to love. 
What if it doesn't work out?
Ah, but what if it does...
(Peter McWilliams)

Our goodness derives not from our capacity to think but to love. (St. Teresa of Avila)

If I am pressed to say why I loved him, I feel it can only be explained by replying: 'Because it was he; because it was me.' (Montaigne)

My soul is so knit to yours that it is but a divided life I live without you. (George Eliot)

I learnt a long time ago that the only people who count in any marriage are the two that are in it. (Hillary Rodham Clinton)

Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years. That is what makes a marriage last - more than passion or even sex! (Simone Signoret)

Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods. (Plato)

Men who treat women as helpless and charming playthings deserve women who treat men as delightful and generous bank accounts. (Priceless, Dave Ramsey)

Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile. (Franklin P. Jones)

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Marriage is a lot like the army; everyone complains, but you'd be surprised at the large number that reenlist. (James Garner)

A man is only as old as the woman he feels. (Groucho Marx)

The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer. (Oliver Wendell Holmes)

Even when there's snow on the roof, there may be a fire in the furnace.

To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world. (Bill Wilson)

Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century. (Mark Twain)

Men of quality are not afraid of women for equality.

Don't cry for a man who's left you - the next one may fall for your smile. (Mae West)

If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.

All real love stories must end with "happily ever after."

Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your heart or burn down your house, you can never tell. (Joan Crawford  )

Before I met my husband, I'd never fallen in love. I'd stepped in it a few times.

A small house can hold as much love as a big one.

I was nauseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox. (Woody Allen)

A husband who thinks he's smarter than his wife is married to a very smart woman.

If you seek a model husband, be sure he's a working model.

A good marriage requires a determination to be married for good.

Romance is cooking a gourmet meal for your wife. Love is washing the dishes afterward.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind. (William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream)

Immature love says "I love you because I need you." Mature love says "I need you because I love you."

Love is being willing to say you're sorry, first.

O, 'tis love, 'tis love, that makes the world go round! (Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

On any disagreement, the husband should be entitled to the last few words. And those words are "Yes, dear."

Marriage is an exercise that works every muscle in the human spirit.

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out. (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Love wasn't put into your heart to stay. Love isn't love until you give it away. (Michael W. Smith)

Love is the irresistible desire to be desired irresistibly. (Louis Ginsberg)

Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter to the other... Now you are but two persons, but there is one life before you. (Traditional Apache Wedding Blessing)

I ran up the door, closed the stairs,

said my pajamas and put on my prayers,

turned off my bed, and jumped into the light...

all because you kissed me goodnight.

We can do no great things - only small things with great love. (Mother Theresa)

The measure of love is to love without measure.

In every marriage more than a week old, there are grounds for divorce. The trick is to find, and continue to find, grounds for marriage. (Robert Anderson)

Don't marry the person you think you can live with; marry only the individual you think you can't live without. (Dr. James C. Dobson)

More marriages might survive if the partners realized that sometimes the better comes after the worse. (Doug Larson)

The average woman would rather have beauty than brains because the average man can see better than he can think.

Choose your life's mate carefully. From this one decision will come ninety percent of all your happiness or misery. (Jackson Brown, Jr.)

Judge your success by the happiness of your wife and the respect given to you by your children.

Never forget the nine most important words of any marriage: "I love you," "You are beautiful," and "Please forgive me."

Men are like fine wine. They all start out like grapes, and it's our job to stomp on them and keep them in the dark until they mature into something you'd like to have dinner with.

I think the bottom-line difference between being single and married is this: When you're single, you're happy as you are. When you're married, you can only be as happy as the least happy person in the apartment. (Tom Hertz)

Face powder may win a husband, but it takes baking powder to keep him.

This is the reason we were made

To know the love of our Creator

And to give the love He's given us away

(Steven Curtis Chapman, All About Love)

When choosing a man to date, always consider whether this is the kind of man you would like to marry. If he isn't potential marriage material, you shouldn't be dating him. (my Mom)

Some pray to marry the man they love,

My prayer will somewhat vary:

I humbly pray to Heaven above

That I love the man I marry.

(Rose Pastor Stokes, "My Prayer")

Love is friendship set on fire.

Sex appeal is fifty percent what you've got, and fifty percent what people think you've got. (Sophia Loren)

There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved. (George Sand)

The first marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. The second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience. The third marriage is the triumph of stupidity.

A poll shows women think men are sexiest playing football. And they're at their least sexy watching football. (Jay Leno)

A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.... She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. (Proverbs 10, 25)

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. (Ingrid Bergman)

There is no sight on Earth more appealing than the sight of a woman making dinner for someone she loves. (Thomas Wolfe)

I still have two abiding passions; one is my model railway, the other women. But at the age of 90, I find I am getting just a little too old for model railways. (Pierre Monteux, conductor, on turning 90)

I kissed my first girl and smoked my first cigarette on the same day. I haven't had time for tobacco since. (Arturuo Toscanini)

Keep thy eyes wide open before marriage, and half-shut afterwards. (Benjamin Franklin)

A dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to want to take it off you. (Francoise Sagan)

You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. (Buddha)

The most indispensable ingredient of all good home cooking: love for those you are cooking for. (Sophia Loren)

Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more. (Erica Jong)

The loveliest faces are to be seen by moonlight, when one sees half with the eye and half with the fancy. (Persian Proverb)

The most effective way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once.

We all want to fall in love. Why? Because that experience makes us feel completely alive. Where every sense is heightened, every emotion is magnified, our everyday reality is shattered and we are flying into the heavens. It may only last a moment, and hour, an afternoon. But that doesn't diminish its value. Because we... are left with memories that we treasure for the rest of our lives. (Unknown)

A man's greatest blessing is a sympathetic wife.

The goal in marriage is not to think alike, but to think together.

The heart of marriage is memories; and if the two of you happen to have the same ones and can savor your reruns, then your marriage is a gift from the gods.  (Bill Cosby)

My wife and I were comparing notes the other day. “I have a higher IQ, did better on my SATs and make more money than you,” she pointed out. “Yeah, but when you step back and look at the big picture, I’m still ahead,” I said. She looked mystified. “I married better,” I replied. (Louis Rodolico, from Reader’s Digest)

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

"I ask for so little. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave." Jareth, from the Labyrinth

Whenever you want to marry someone, go have lunch with his ex-wife. (Shelley Winters)

To love, purely and fiercely, without agenda, is the most terrifying and rewarding thing you'll ever do. (Gala Darling)

It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death. (Eleanor Roosevelt)

The Difference Between "Men" and "Guys"

-Men know what they want to be doing five years down the road. Guys are not sure what they want to be doing later tonight.

-Men claim to be feminists but still insist on opening doors, driving, and paying for dinner. Guys claim to be feminists so they can let women open doors, drive, and pay for dinner.

-Men are afraid of becoming their fathers. Guys are afraid of becoming men.

-Men order wine based on more than the price. Guys bring their own beer.

Chow Time!

Sometimes I feel the real meaning of Thanksgiving is lost in a flurry of turkey, prayers, and homecomings. What we're really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving? (Erma Bombeck)

A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory.

Did you ever see the customers in health-food stores? They are pale, skinny people who look half-dead. In a steak house, you see robust, ruddy people. They're dying, of course, but they look terrific. (Bill Cosby)

In the Lord's Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach. (Woodrow Wilson)

A diet that consists predominantly of rice leads to the use of opium, just as a diet that consists predominantly of potatoes leads to the use of liquor. (Friedrich Nietzsche)

"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called. (A.A. Milne)

And could someone bring me something deep-fat-fried and smothered in chocolate! (Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2)

What is two inches wide, six inches long, and drives women wild? A bar of chocolate.

Forget love… I’d rather fall in chocolate!

Men, coffee, and chocolate are all better rich.

ta'SoH lan pa’ vaD yuch? – Do you put out for chocolate?

Cooking is the most ancient of the arts, for Adam was born hungry. (Anthelme Brillat-Savarin)

You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on. (Dean Martin)

Candy 
Is dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.
(Ogden Nash)

Hunger is the best sauce in the world. (Cervantes)

Gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign something is eating us. (Peter de Vries)

One should eat to live, and not live to eat. (Moliere)

A hen's egg is, quite simply, a work of art, a masterpiece of design and construction with, it has to be said, brilliant packaging. (Delia Smith)

A Toast! ... or Several...

There are silver ships,

There are gold ships,

But there are no ships

Like friendships.

Hope for the best,

Expect the worst;

Life is a play,

And we're all unrehearsed!

May the most you hope for

Be the least you will receive.

May we kiss those we please,

And please those we kiss!

May your right hand always

Be stretched out in friendship

And never in want.

May your neighbors respect you,

Trouble neglect you,

The angels protect you,

And Heaven accept you.

Here's hoping that you live forever,

And mine is the last voice you hear.

May the clouds in your life

Form only a background for

A lovely sunset.

May the Lord make your love

Increase and Overflow

For each other and

For everyone else.

(1 Thess 3:12)

A toast to bread,

For without bread,

There could be no toast.

Do all the good you can,

By all the means you can,

In all the ways you can,

In all the places you can,

To all the people you can,

As long as you can.

(John Wesley)

Heavenly Father, bless us

And keep us all alive.

There's ten of us to dinner,

And not enough for five.

I could wish you good health,

I could wish you great wealth;

But your health could fail tomorrow,

And great wealth could bring deep sorrow.

So, I'll simply say, may God bless you!

(Theodore Roosevelt)

May you live as long as you want,

But never want as long as you live.

(Irish Blessing)

May the road rise up to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon you face,

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

(Irish Blessing)

Nothing is nobler or more admirable

Than when two people who see eye to eye

Live together as husband and wife,

Thereby confounding their enemies

And delighting their friends.

(Homer, from The Odyssey)

May your hands be forever clasped in friendship

And your hearts forever joined in love.

May those who love us love us,

And those that don't love us,

May God turn their hearts.

And if He doesn't turn their hearts,

May He turn their ankles,

So we'll know them by their limping.

Here's to beefsteak when you're hungry,

Whiskey when you're dry,

Greenbacks when you're busted,

And Heaven when you die!

May you have the hindsight to know

Where you've been,

The foresight to know

Where you're going,

And the insight to know

When you've gone too far.

May the Lord love us but not call us too soon.

To Life. The first half is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.

To Mother and Dad on their wedding anniversary:

We never know the love of our parents

For us till we have become parents.

(Henry Ward Beecher)

May we always have more occasion for the cook than for the doctor.

May our house always be too small to hold all our friends. (Myrtle Reed)

Here's champagne to our real friends and real pain to our sham friends.

May you never forget what is worth remembering

or remember what is best forgotten.

Here's to your health! You make age curious, Time furious, and all of us envious.

May blessings be upon your house,

Your roof and hearth and walls;

May there be lights to welcome you

When evening's shadow falls-

The love that like a guiding star

Still signals when you roam;

A book, a friend - these be the things

That make a house a home.

(Myrtle Reed)

To our host,

An excellent man;

For is not a man

Fairly judged by the

Company he keeps?

May the road rise to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back,

the sun shine warm upon your face,

the rain fall soft upon your fields,

and until we meet again

may God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Up wi' yer glasses, an' deil tak the hindmaist!

Here's to those who love us,

And here's to those who don't

A smile for those who are willing to,

And a tear for those who won't.

Some hae meat and cannae eat,
Some would eat that want it.
But we hae meat and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.
(Robert Burns)

Here's to Cheating, Stealing, Fighting, and Drinking.
If you Cheat, may you cheat Death;
If you Steal, may you steal a woman's heart;
If you Fight, may you fight for a brother;
If you Drink, may you drink with me.

'Cheers', translated

Prosit (Austrian, German)

L'chayim, Mazel tov (Hebrew)

A votre sante (French)

Okole maluna (Hawaiian)

Kampai, Banzai (Japanese)

Salud (Spanish)

Slante (Gaelic)

Oogy wawa (Zulu)