Admit when you're wrong. Shut up when you're right.

In a good relationship, people get angry, but in a very different way. The Marriage Masters see a problem a bit like a soccer ball. They kick it around. It's 'our' problem.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse predict an ailing marriage: Criticism, Defensiveness, Stonewalling and Contempt. The worst of these is contempt.

I believe we're going to find that respect and affection are essential to all relationships working and contempt destroys them.

Admit when you're wrong. Shut up when you're right.

Bid for connection: Each of our daily interactions with another person.

Marriages are much more likely to succeed when the couple experiences a 5 to 1 ratio of positive to negative interactions whereas when the ratio approaches 1 to 1, marriages are more likely to end in divorce.