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.

Life is Pain, Highness

Buttercup: You mock my pain!

Dread Pirate Roberts: Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.

The only pain in pleasure is the pleasure of the pain. (Anne Rice)

Whatever brings you the most joy will also probably bring you the most pain. Always a price to pay. (Alice Hoffman)

How delicious is pleasure after torment! (Pierre Corneille)

The first thing we become convinced of is that man is organized so as to be far more sensible of pain than of pleasure. (Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin)

Humor is the instinct for taking pain playfully. (Max Eastman)

It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys. (Emil Zatopek)

I think that passion and love and pain are all bearable, and they go to make love beautiful. (Robert Plant)

Many men are deeply moved by the mere semblance of suffering in a woman; they take the look of pain for a sign of constancy or of love. (Honore De Balzac)

The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you're in control of your life. If you don't, life controls you. (Tony Robbins)

After great pain, a formal feeling comes. The Nerves sit ceremonious, like tombs. (Emily Dickinson)

There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt. (Erma Bombeck)

Torment, for some men, is a need, an appetite, and an accomplishment. (Emile M. Cioran)

There is no coming to consciousness without pain. (Carl Jung)

Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain. (William Faulkner)

To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it! (Charlie Chaplin)

I think about the meaning of pain. Pain is personal. It really belongs to the one feeling it. Probably the only thing that is your own. I like mine. (Henry Rollins)

Sensual excess drives out pity in man. (Marquis de Sade)

There is no more lively sensation than that of pain; its impressions are certain and dependable, they never deceive as may those of the pleasure women perpetually feign and almost never experience. (Marquis de Sade)

The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain. (Lord Byron)

To give and receive love, you have to be in touch with pain, you have to be capable of provoking it and feeling it. (Jeanne Moreau)

The end is the beginning of all things, Suppressed and hidden, Awaiting to be released through the rhythm Of pain and pleasure. (Jiddu Krishnamurti)

Suffering cheerfully endured, ceases to be suffering and is transmuted into an ineffable joy. (Gandhi)

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. (Mother Teresa)

My pain may be the reason for somebody's laugh. But my laugh must never be the reason for somebody's pain. (Charlie Chaplin)

Unfortunately, sometimes people don't hear you until you scream. (Stefanie Powers)

The wish to hurt, the momentary intoxication with pain, is the loophole through which the pervert climbs into the minds of ordinary men. (Jacob Bronowski)

A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them. (Carl Gustav Jung)

Nothing that can be said can begin to take away the anguish and pain of these moments. Grief is the price we pay for love. (Elizabeth II)

Scars have the power to remind us that our past is real. (Cormac McCarthy)

Anger and agony
Are better than misery
Trust me, I've got a plan
When the lights go off, you will understand
Pain, without love
Pain, I can't get enough
Pain, I like it rough
'Cause I'd rather feel pain than nothing at all
  (Pain, Three Days Grace)

Patriotism, War, & Politics

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which It stands, One Nation Under God, with Liberty and Justice for All. (James B. Upham and F. M. Bellamy)

Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally, I know she is better than every other country. (Sinclair Lewis)

America is a country that doesn't know where it is going but is determined to set a speed record getting there. (Lawrence J. Peter)

The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good my religion. (Thomas Paine)

I fear that all I have done is awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve. (Admiral Yamamoto after Pearl Harbor, Dec 7, 1941)

We will not give in to terrorists; we will not rest until they are found and defeated; we will win this struggle. Not for glory, nor wealth, nor power, but for justice, for freedom, and for peace; so help us God. (Tom Harkin)

We must all hang together, or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately. (Benjamin Franklin, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence)

America and England: and may they never have any division but the Atlantic between them. (Charles Dickens)

As for those that carried out these attacks there are no adequate words of condemnation. Their barbarism will stand as their shame for all eternity. (British Prime Minister Tony Blair, on 9-11)

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty. (John F. Kennedy)

America - half-brother of the world! - with something good and bad of every land. (Philip Bayley)

Being in politics is like being a football coach; you have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it's important. (Eugene McCarthy)

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. (John Fitzgerald Kennedy)

Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that gets all the publicity. But then, we elected them. (Lily Tomlin)

Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity. (Irving Kristol)

The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government. (Henry Ward Beecher)

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time. (Sir Winston Churchill)

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. (Abraham Lincoln)

When government accepts responsibility for people, then people no longer take responsibility for themselves. (George Pataki)

We, therefore, here in Britain, stand shoulder to shoulder with our American friends in this hour of tragedy, and we, like them, will not rest until this evil is driven from our world (Tony Blair)

The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war. (Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit)

Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly, and for the same reason.

Being President is like running a cemetary; you've got a lot of people under you, and nobody's listening. (Bill Clinton)

We have a presidential election coming up. And I think the big problem, of course, it that someone will win. (Barry Crimmins)

In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman. (Margaret Thatcher)

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. (Thomas Jefferson, US Declaration of Independence)

Democratic nations must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend. (Margaret Thatcher)

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. (Bishop Desmond Tutu)

Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. (Adlai E. Stevenson)

Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so. (Gore Vidal)

The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs; Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The differences are between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it; between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past; between those who open their arms and those who are determined to clench their fists. (William J. Clinton)

It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it. (Eleanor Roosevelt)

Peace begins with a smile. (Mother Teresa)

Politics, it seems to me, for all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong. (Richard Armour)

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. (Alexander Hamilton)

Politics, n: Poly "many" + tics "blood-sucking parasites" (Larry Hardiman)

Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half. (Gore Vidal)

Voters don't decide issues, they decide who will decide issues. (George F. Will)

You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. (Jeannette Rankin)

The trouble with America is that there are far too many wide-open spaces surrounded by teeth. (Charles Luckman)

You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom. (Malcolm X)

One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one. (Agatha Christie)

Freedom is not the right to do as you please but the liberty to do as you ought.

The worst thing about history is that every time it repeats itself, the prices go up.

I believe God is deeply saddened by [the events of September 11], just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and protection if we demand He leave us alone? (Anne Graham, daughter of Billy Graham)

Obey the rulers who have authority over you.... People who oppose the authorities are opposing what God has done.... (Romans 13:1-2)

Koran (9:11) - For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle. The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah and lo, while some of the people trembled in despair still more rejoiced; for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah; and there was peace.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. (George Washington)

One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, one nation, evermore! (O. W. Holmes)

Out where the handclasp's a little stronger,

Out where the smile dwells a little longer,

That's where the West begins.

(Arthur Chapman, "Out Where the West Begins")

I believe it is my duty to my Country to love it; to support its Constitution; to obey its laws; to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies. (William Tyler Page)

Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens. (Daniel Webster)

Government cannot make us equal; it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law. (Clarence Thomas)

Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers. (John Jay, the first Supreme Court Justice)

The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve, nor will he ever receive, either. (Benjamin Franklin)

That government is best which governs least. (Henry David Thoreau)

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first. (Charles de Gaulle)

Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody. (Franklin P. Adams)

When a dog barks at the the moon, then it is religion; but when he barks at strangers, it is patriotism! (David Starr Jordan)

The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the the home. (Confucious)

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains or slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take but as for me; give me liberty or give me death! (Patrick Henry)

Patriotism is in political life what faith is in religion. (John Dalberg Acton)

A visitor from the Netherlands was chatting with his American friend and was jokingly explaining about the red, white and blue in the Netherlands flag. "Our flag symbolizes our taxes," he said. "We get red when we talk about them, white when we get our tax bill, and blue after we pay them." "That's the same with us," the American said, "only we see stars, too."

God bless America. Let's not forget that her greatness is not in her intellectualism, technology, or natural resources, but in her people. (Andy Horner, founder of Premier Designs)

It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (Patrick Henry)

When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front row seat. (George Carlin)

It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting. (Tom Stoppard)

If the Government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away everything you have. (Gerald Ford)

War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading. (Thomas Hardy)

You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has freedom. (Malcolm X)

*Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.*
Let him who desires peace, prepare for war.
(Vegetius)

A statesman is a politician who places himself at the service of the nation. A politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service. (Georges Pompidou)