George Eliot

Genius at first is little more than a great capacity for receiving discipline.

I desire no future that will break the ties with the past.

Speech is often barren; but silence also does not necessarily brood over a full nest. Your still fowl, blinking at you without remark, may all the while be sitting on one addled egg…

Human beliefs, like all other natural growths, elude the barrier of systems.

In the schoolroom her quick mind had taken readily that strong starch of unexplained rules and disconnected facts which saves ignorance from any painful sense of limpness.

A woman’s heart must be of such a size and no larger, else it must be pressed small, like Chinese feet; her happiness is to be made as cakes are, by a fixed receipt.

Husbands and wives, first be faithful to each other. Second, keep the romance going all of your life by courting each other every day.

In matrimony, to hesitate is sometimes to be saved.

Obviously I couldn’t have done anything that I’ve done without Michelle… not only has she been a great first lady, she is just my rock. I count on her in so many ways every single day.

Both marriage and death ought to be welcome: The one promises happiness, doubtless the other assures it.

What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are but how you deal with incompatibility.

There’s a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking. It’s called marriage.

I am a black American male from Chicago, who had my rehearsal dinner at Versailles and then got married in Florence with a view of the entire city.

If you treat your wife like a thoroughbred, you’ll never end up with a nag.

The greatest day of my life was the day I married Mrs. Ford.

This is my first marriage. Beforehand, I was living in sin.

Call no man unhappy until he is married.

In marriage do thou be wise: prefer the person before money, virtue before beauty, the mind before the body; then thou hast a wife, a friend, a companion, a second self.

Marriage is the best state for man in general, and every man is a worst man in proportion to the level he is unfit for marriage.

[on Michelle] After about 15 years I finally figured out that she’s always right!

[on Michelle] Like a lot of political spouses, the role was thrust upon her. But I always knew she’d be incredible at it, and put her own unique stamp on the job. That’s because who you see is who she is-the brilliant, funny, generous woman who, for whatever reason, agreed to marry me. I think people gravitate to her because they see themselves in her-a dedicated mom, a good friend, and someone who’s not afraid to poke a little fun at herself from time to time.