They are all alike you know. They hold their tongues for years and you think you're safe, but when the opportunity comes they remember everything.
Edith WhartonRead
As he paid the hansom and followed his wife's long train into the house he took refuge in the comforting platitude that the first six months were always the most difficult in marriage. 'After that I suppose we shall have pretty nearly finished rubbing off each other’s angles,' he reflected; but the worst of it was that May's pressure was already bearing on the very angles whose sharpness he most wanted to keep
Interpretation
Marriage often begins with challenges that couples must navigate together.
This quote reflects the initial struggles that couples face during the early stages of marriage. It suggests that the first six months can be particularly difficult as partners learn to understand and adapt to each other's differences. The mention of 'rubbing off each other’s angles' symbolizes the compromises and adjustments needed in a relationship, highlighting the tension between personal identity and marital harmony.
In practice
This quote can be used in a wedding speech to emphasize the journey of marriage.
They are all alike you know. They hold their tongues for years and you think you're safe, but when the opportunity comes they remember everything.
They seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods
Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.
And I wonder, among all the tangles of this mortal coil, which one contains tighter knots to undo, & consequently suggests more tugging, & pain, & diversified elements of misery, than the marriage tie.
There are two ways to spread happiness; either be the light who shines it or be the mirror who reflects it.
The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!
A house does not need a wife any more than it needs a husband.
Being human, we are imperfect. That's why we need each other. To catch each other when we falter. To encourage each other when we lose heart. Some may lead; others may follow; but none of us can go it alone.
The provision of basic material needs is not sufficient to make minority groups and indigenous peoples feel they are truly part of the greater national entity. For that they have to be confident that they too have an active role to play in shaping the destiny of the state that demands their allegiance.
There is only one relationship that matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal Redeemer and Lord. Let everything else go, but maintain that at all cost, and God will fulfill His purpose through your life. (This includes meeting the needs of your heart.) One individual life may be of priceless value to God's purposes, and yours may be that life.
The next step is to learn to communicate with the people that you feel are causing your pain and misery- not to learn how to prove them wrong and yourself right but how to communicate from the heart.
If you learn how to forgive others for not being strong, then people can learn how to forgive you for your own issues.
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