QuoteProject
You can measure the happiness of a marriage by the number of scars that each partner carries on their tongues, earned from years of biting back angry words.
Elizabeth Gilbert
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

A strong marriage often involves communication challenges and the restraint to manage one's words.

In this quote, Elizabeth Gilbert suggests that the true measure of a marriage’s happiness lies in the ability to hold back hurtful words during conflicts. The 'scars' represent the struggles and sacrifices both partners make to maintain respect and love, highlighting the importance of communication and restraint in a healthy relationship.

Themes

MarriageHappinessCommunicationRelationshipsRestraint

In practice

Example use cases

During a wedding speech to emphasize the importance of effective communication in marriage.

More from Elizabeth Gilbert

You know the old adage: Plant an expectation, reap a disappointment.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
I had always been taught that the pursuit of happiness was my natural (even national) birthright. It is the emotional trademark of my culture to seek happiness. Not just any kind of happiness, either, but profound happiness, even soaring happiness. And what could possibly bring a person more soaring happiness than romantic love.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
When I tried this morning, after an hour or so of unhappy thinking, to dip back into my meditation, I took a new idea with me: compassion. I asked my heart if it could please infuse my soul with a more generous perspective on my mind's workings. Instead of thinking that I was a failure, could I perhaps accept that I am only a human being--and a normal one, at that?
Elizabeth GilbertRead
And when you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt - this is not selfishness, but obligation. You were given life; it is your duty to find something beautiful within life no matter how slight.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilling yearnings.
Elizabeth GilbertRead

Similar quotes

Always make the other person feel important.
John DeweyRead
It's always the case that the minority has to navigate two different worlds. Women have to know how to live in a man's world. Gay people have to know how to live in a straight world. Black people gotta know how to live in a predominantly white world.
Sterling K. BrownRead
Women with pasts interest men because they hope history will repeat itself.
Mae WestRead
Krystal flung herself violently off the chair, away from her mother. She was surprised to feel warm liquid flowing down her cheeks, and thought confusedly of blood, but it was tears, only tears, clear and shining on her fingertips when she wiped them away.
J. K. RowlingRead
In the course of a marriage, one accommodates the other.
Ruth Bader GinsburgRead
For the way loneliness is worse when you return to it after a reprieve—like the soul’s version of putting on a wet bathing suit, clammy and miserable.
Laini TaylorRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.