“So that's it？ You were trying to hold out on me, weren't you？” She laughed softly.

“My father's dying,” said Soams between his teeth. “I'm going up. Give my love to Annette.”

In a fruitful argument, each partner explains why her or she is mad while the other one listens—with respect. Long-term happy couples also tend to argue calmly. Loss of control—yelling, sobbing—seldom helps solve problems. “Couples whose relationship has improved over time usually have learned to keep the lid on arguments,” says Gottman. “They de-escalate anger by suggesting a compromise or solution.”

The best indication of whether a man or woman is capable of genuine friendship with a mate, social psychologists say, is whether he or she has close, nonsexual friends of the opposite sex. Also important, says Pittman, is whether that person is friends with his parents, since someone still at war with his parents is probably not ready for friendship with a romantic partner.

Courage in excess becomes foolhardiness, affection weakness, thrift avarice.

At the beginning of a romance, a person's habits may seem unimportant or even endearing, but over the long term his nightly snoring or her thing about never raising the window shades can begin to grate.

The stage of mental comfort to which they had arrived at this hour was one wherein their souls expanded beyond their skins, and spread their personalities warmly through the room.

To the end, the Emperor, like an eagle deprived of its wings, remained submissive to his aunt. Ignorance added to a strong character was a double curse; stupidity joining hands with stubbornness was twice stupid.

I took home a briefcase full of troubles. As I sat down on that hot and humid evening, there seemed to be no solutions to the problems thrashing around in my brain. So I picked up a book, settled into a comfortable chair and applied my own special therapy—super-slow reading.

Stone does not decay, and so the tools of long ago have remained when even the bones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace.

Pursue your object, be it what it will, steadily and indefatigably.