Romantic Relationships Quotes

“The quality of our close relationships matters more than, say, whether we're in a committed a romantic relationship or have lots of friends.”
― Sam Owen, Resilient Me: How to Worry Less and Achieve More

“I probably would be slightly offended and I’d probably spend a few hours wondering why you wanted me to leave, and I’d probably come to the conclusion that you just wanted a one-night thing. Then I’d think some more about it and I’d probably think that you were pretty rude and was it really such a hardship to speak to me for a while after we’d exchanged bodily fluids? But then I’d come to the conclusion that you were maybe just an asshole and there are plenty of them about, so I would simply end up forgetting about it, because life’s too short.”
― Garry Crystal, And When the Arguing's Over...: Contemporary One Act Plays

“Don' mean to have any. It's fun to watch other people philander, but I should feel like a fool doing it myself, Said Jo, looking alarmed at the thought.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“Sixty-nine percent of ongoing problems never get resolved. No, I'm not saying that to depress you. The point is that it's not what you talk about, it's how you talk about it. Everyone thinks the issue is clarity, but studies show that most couples (if they do talk) are actually pretty clear...

It's about regulation, not resolution of the conflict. War is inevitable, but you have to obey the Geneva Convention rules. No chemical warfare. No torturing prisoners. Maya Angelou once said, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Eric Barker, Plays Well with Others: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Relationships Is (Mostly) Wrong

“Yes, we will get hurt. Our hearts will break, and if we are lucky they will break open. When they do, we can begin to experience ourselves, relationships—indeed all of life—in a deeper, richer, and more meaningful way.”
― Randy Siegel, Break Up, Wake Up, Move On: From Broken Heart to Open Heart; Prepare for the Partner You’ve Always Longed For

“Most breakups are awful. But with compassion, attention, introspection, and intention they can become transforming, bringing you closer to alignment with your true self while preparing you for the next great adventure.”
― Randy Siegel, Break Up, Wake Up, Move On: From Broken Heart to Open Heart; Prepare for the Partner You’ve Always Longed For

“Love is a country, with closed borders and a language no foreigner can speak. The only people who can understand its customs, traditions, and history are its citizens. A relationship doesn’t have to make sense to all people. It only has to make sense to two people.”
― Jillian Keenan, Sex with Shakespeare: Here's Much to Do with Pain, but More with Love

“Romantic relationships are like Internet websites where people log in and log out.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

“...here, just as everywhere else, many men are far from skilled Latin lovers that legend would have them. ... In some ways, of course, Italian men are different and in my opinion got - and deserve - their reputation because of their extreme warmth, actively affectionate nature and sentimental romanticism, not necessarily because of their sexual bravura. ... They also appear to be less “generous” than men from some other countries. ... Italian men love being on the receiving end of oral sex but generally shy away from giving it. “Oh, there are a few older guys who like it,” says one male friend, “but most men think it’s kind of icky.”
― Sari Gilbert, My Home Sweet Rome: Living (and loving) in Italy's Eternal City

“could it be that they [Italian men] care more about romance than sex, especially when they are on the receiving end? ... ...I was on the lookout for some good sex, an attitude that led colleagues with whom I then shared an office, Federico and Gerardo, to say that I was “the only maschio in the room”. Both claimed that they only care about sex and want it when they are in love.”
― Sari Gilbert, My Home Sweet Rome: Living (and loving) in Italy's Eternal City

“Sexual emancipation, I think, can be the medium of a wide-ranging emotional reorganisation of social life. The concrete meaning of emancipation in this context is not, however, as the sexual radicals proposed, a substantive set of psychic qualities or forms of behaviour. It is more effectively understood in a procedural way, as the possibility of the radical democratisation of the personal. Who says sexual emancipation, in my view, says sexual democracy. It is not only sexuality at stake here. The democratisation of personal life, as a potential, extends in a fundamental way to friendship relations and, crucially, to the relations of parents, children, and other kin.”
― Anthony Giddens, The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies

“...the most wonderful form of crazy that love brings: idealization... A 1999 study showed that people in happy relationships spend five times as long talking about their sweetheart's good qualities as bad. As Robert Seidenberg said, "Love is a human religion in which another person is believed in."

...Realism may be accurate, but it's our illusions that foretell our happiness in love. And the more crazy, the better. People who idealized their partner the most felt no decline in relationship satisfaction over a study of the first three years in marriage.

...When researchers ask people in the throes of infatuation about their partner's downsides, they can recognize and identify the bad stuff... But they emotionally discount the negative: it's not a big deal. Or those flaws are even "charming." This attitude helps grease the wheels of a relationship”
― Eric Barker, Plays Well with Others: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Relationships Is (Mostly) Wrong

“Most couples wait too long to go (to marriage counseling). There's an average six-year delay between the first cracks in a marriage and actually getting help...

When entropy decays the happiness of a marriage over time, it's not just a linear downward progression for everyone. Often, there's a phase change (like water to ice)... In marriage this goes by the appropriately intimidating term negative sentiment override.

Idealization hasn't faded-- it has flipped. If love is positive delusion, NSO is utter disillusionment. You are biased against, not toward, your partner. The facts haven't necessarily changed, just your interpretation of them. Rather than attributing problems to context, attributions now lie in someone's poor character traits.”
― Eric Barker, Plays Well with Others: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Relationships Is (Mostly) Wrong

“Your partner is a person, they’re not your fucking property.”
― Curtis Tyrone Jones

“Romance is going beyond sexual to sensual awareness.”
― Lebo Grand

“the expectation that someone else will, in the long run, make us… happy… is the perfect way to end up… unhappy!”
― Stanislav Stodulka, ERROR: mini-series: Bodily Programs and Romantic Relationships

“The reality is that many Black men in the household are conditioned to see that their sole responsibility as a parent is to provide financially, so they are unable to connect emotionally and vulnerably in romantic relationships.”
― Jasmine Marie, Black Girls Breathing: Heal from Trauma, Combat Chronic Stress, and Find Your Freedom