Only a marriage with partners strong enough to risk divorce is strong enough to avoid it.

Quoting, like smoking, is a dirty habit to which I am devoted.

Quoting, like smoking, ... is a dirty habit to which I am devoted. But then ... I am a professor of English literature; it is an occupational hazard.

Only a marriage with partners strong enough to risk divorce is strong enough to avoid it.

as the years go on a sense of deep patience comes over one; one seems to know the virtue of ripeness, and the danger of rushing events.

People who are genuinely involved in life, not just living a routine they've contrived to protect them from disaster, always seem to have more demanded of them than they can easily take on.

I don't know why togetherness was ever held up as an ideal of marriage. Away from home for both, then together, that's much better.