It’s harder than we think. I remember reading these quotes and it made more sense than any Hallmark anniversary card, or all that sentimental stuff they sell in media about relationships, or any homily I’ve heard..

All these quotes below are from Joseph Campbell.

“Marriage is not a love affair. A love affair is a totally different thing. A marriage is a commitment to that which you are. That person is literally your other half. And you and the other are one. A love affair isn’t that. That is a relationship of pleasure, and when it gets to be unpleasurable, it’s off. But a marriage is a life commitment, and a life commitment means the prime concern of your life. If marriage is not the prime concern, you are not married.”

“Marriage is not a simple love affair, it’s an ordeal, and the ordeal is the sacrifice of ego to a relationship in which two have become one”

“When people get married because they think it’s a long-time love affair, they’ll be divorced very soon, because all love affairs end in disappointment. But marriage is a recognition of a spiritual identity.”

“When you make the sacrifice in marriage, you’re sacrificing not to each other but to unity in a relationship.”