"It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love."
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Source: "A Wedding Sermon from a Prison Cell" (1943), in Letters and Papers from Prison
Marriage, Family
Views: 490
"But you must realize that it isn't ultimately your spouse who is exposing the sinfulness of your heart—it's marriage itself. Marriage does not so much bring you into confrontation with your spouse as confront you with yourself. Marriage shows you a realistic, unflattering picture of who you are and then takes you by the scruff of the neck and forces you to pay attention to it. This may sound discouraging, but it is really the road to liberation."
— Timothy Keller
Source: Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage (New York: Dutton, 2011)
Marriage, happiness, change
Views: 475
"I have known many happy marriages, but never a compatible one. The whole aim of marriage is to fight through and survive the instant when incompatibility becomes unquestionable."
— G.K. Chesterton
Source: What's Wrong with the World (1910)
Marriage, Compatibility
Views: 449
"The main problem every marriage faces is the self-centeredness in both spouse’s hearts. … The solution, however, is the gospel of Christ, for it both humbles us and exalts us at the same time."
— Timothy Keller & Kathy Keller
Source: The Meaning of Marriage: A Couple's Devotional (2019), Introduction
Marriage, forgiveness, grace
Views: 440
"Marriage is a flawed person married to a flawed person living in a fallen world. ... God decided to leave you and your spouse in this fallen world to live, love, and work because he intended to use the difficulties you face to do something in you that could not be done any other way."
— Paul David Tripp
Source: "The (Discouraging) Definition and Location of Marriage," Grace & Knowledge, Paul Tripp Ministries, February 2026
Marriage, script, conflict, grace
Views: 439
"What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?"