Comic Books
"Maybe the rest of the world thinks marriage is something people do between other marriages, but it means something to me. You’re my partner and my husband and I love you."
— Mary Jane Watson, "To Have and to Hold", (Sensational Spider-Man Annual #1), written by Matt Fraction
Fan Works
"We have been blessed, Kara. If I had known I'd be this happy in Steve's arms... well, let us just say that, for the sake of the villains I had to fight all these years, it was a good thing for the world that I didn't find out sooner. I know Kal has been just as pleasured by his marriage to Lois. Even Hal and Oliver show more optimism than strain these days. We are finally doing things for ourselves now, and not just for the world."
Asuka: "Have you ever wondered, Shinji? Have you ever wondered what would have happened if we had just given ourselves a chance?"
Shinji: "I-I don't know... Eventually, we might have realized that we wouldn't fit after all. Maybe we would only have heated fights in the end, breaking up or divorcing in the most painful way. Or, afraid of being alone, we would just pretend to be happy; living an empty life next to each other. Or..."
Asuka: "Or...?"
Shinji: "Or maybe we would have been happier than we ever had imagined possible, been together for ten amazing years, blissfully married for nine, and had the best children we could have wished for. We would be living a dream. And some day, we would go to a reunion and pretend we haven't seen each other for many years."
'Asuka bursts in laughter
Shinji: "I-I don't know... Eventually, we might have realized that we wouldn't fit after all. Maybe we would only have heated fights in the end, breaking up or divorcing in the most painful way. Or, afraid of being alone, we would just pretend to be happy; living an empty life next to each other. Or..."
Asuka: "Or...?"
Shinji: "Or maybe we would have been happier than we ever had imagined possible, been together for ten amazing years, blissfully married for nine, and had the best children we could have wished for. We would be living a dream. And some day, we would go to a reunion and pretend we haven't seen each other for many years."
'Asuka bursts in laughter
Literature
"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
— Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
"[The Crofts] brought with them their country habit of being almost always together. He was ordered to walk to keep off the gout, and Mrs. Croft seemed to go shares with him in everything, and to walk for her life to do him good. Anne saw them wherever she went (...), and she never failed to think of them, and never failed to see them. Knowing their feelings as she did, it was a most attractive picture of happiness to her. She always watched them as long as she could, delighted to fancy she understood what they might be talking of, as they walked along in happy independence, or equally delighted to see the Admiral's hearty shake of the hand when he encountered an old friend, and observe their eagerness of conversation when occasionally forming into a little knot of the navy, Mrs. Croft looking as intelligent and keen as any of the officers around her."
Live-Action TV
"When you're a kid you assume your parents are soulmates. My kids are gonna be right about that."
— Pam Beesly, The Office (US), "Stress Relief"
(while the guys are discussing their sexual histories)
Ted: Why don't you check your list?
Barney: My list?
Ted: Come on, man. Don't pretend you're not the kind of guy who keeps a list of all the women he's slept with.
Marshall: I have one. It's called "my marriage license". (he and Lily high-five)
Ted: Why don't you check your list?
Barney: My list?
Ted: Come on, man. Don't pretend you're not the kind of guy who keeps a list of all the women he's slept with.
Marshall: I have one. It's called "my marriage license". (he and Lily high-five)
— How I Met Your Mother, "The Bracket" note
Buddy: Maybe they had a fist fight?
Sally: Rob and Laura? The worst they do is kiss hard.
"Marriage is the greatest adventure of them all. It's filled with pitfalls and setbacks and mistakes, but it's a journey worth taking because you take it together. I know Keiko's been unhappy about us coming to the station. We still argue about it. But that's all right, because at the end of the day, we both know we love each other. That's all that matters."
— Miles O'Brien, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "Armageddon Game"
Stand-Up Comedy
Being married is so nice. I never knew relationships were supposed to make you feel better about yourself.
— John Mulaney, The Comeback Kid
Web Original
"A new page, featuring that rare mythical beast, a happily married couple."
"Morticia and Gomez are also madly, unconditionally in love. I don't mean like sexless sitcom love; like, these two bang on the hour."
"These are the Dibnys we're talking about. 'Till death do you part' is a friendly suggestion."
— A reviewer at DC Nation
"When Aladdin appeared on television with Aladdin and Jasmine's relationship intact, it was quite a bold and different move...Stones, McCorkle and Schooley had the rare insight to not mess with A-J, but not only that, to abstain from separating them to "keep interest going." Throughout the series, there was little doubt cast on the future of their relationship. They were always in love with nary a fight more severe than "pretending to fall for a smelly fat guy to make your partner jealous." And you know what? It worked. They didn't need that soap opera crap at all. Whenever I hear another TV producer say that he has to keep the fan-favorite couple apart from each other for yet another season because he's afraid everybody will lose interest if he doesn't, I always think "Then you're a terrible writer who has to resort to unfair gimmicks because you don't know how to make the couple interesting on their own." I've never been a fan of a dragged out will-they-or-wont-they on a TV series. Aladdin and Jasmine are proof alone that it's unnecessary."
Real Life
"The wise old fairy tales never were so silly as to say that the prince and the princess lived peacefully ever afterwards. The fairy tales said that the prince and the princess lived happily, and so they did. They lived happily, although it is very likely that from time to time they threw the furniture at each other."
"No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization's oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right."
— Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority in Obergefell v. Hodges
