Sometimes love leaves you at a loss for words.
To quote the poet Rumi, “Although I may try to describe love, when I experience it, I am speechless."
(Luckily for the less loquacious types among us, getting engaged only requires a few short words: “Will you marry me?" and "Yes!")
When you’re writing your vows, crafting your invitations, or captioning your engagement photos, you may need a little extra inspiration to express your unique love story.
If you're looking for the right words to describe your unique romance, you're in luck: from song lyrics to Shakespeare, we have plenty of quotes about love and marriage to spark your creativity.
These wise words from artists, poets, singers, and mere mortals in love will help you choose the perfect phrases to describe your romance.
Whether your love language is silly or serious, this list has a quote for every engaged couple.
Short engagement quotes
- “I would not wish any companion in the world but you." — William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”
- “I love her and it is the beginning and end of everything.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
- “Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.” — Alexander Smith
- “Love is the soul’s light, the taste of morning, no me, no we, no claim of being.” — Rumi
- “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made.” — Robert Browning, “Rabbi Ben Ezra”
- “Love doesn’t make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.” — Franklin P. Jones
- “A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.” — Mignon McLaughlin
- “Love keeps the cold out better than a cloak.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Spanish Student”
- “I have found the one my soul loves.” — Song of Solomon, 3:4
- “What a grand thing, to be loved! What a grander thing still, to love!” — Victor Hugo, “Les Miserables”
- “Wherever you are is my home — my only home.” — Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre”
- “May this marriage be full of laughter, our every day in paradise.” — Rumi
- “The love between humans is the thing that nails us to this earth.” — Ann Patchett, “This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage”
- “He’s always loved who I was, and I loved who he was, and we never tried to change each other.” — Dolly Parton
- “Each time you happen to me all over again.” — Edith Wharton, “The Age of Innocence”
- “Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone — we find it with another.” — Thomas Merton
- “Twice or thrice had I lov’d thee, / Before I knew thy face or name” — John Donne, “Air and Angels”
- “The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” — Audrey Hepburn
- “You are part of my existence, part of myself.” —Charles Dickens, “Great Expectations”
- “Thee lift me, and I’ll lift thee, and we’ll ascend together.” —Quaker Proverb
Funny engagement quotes
- “[My mother-in-law] took me aside [on my wedding day] and said she wanted to tell me the secret of a happy marriage, and I said I’d be glad to hear … and she responded, “It helps, sometimes, to be a little deaf.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- “A wedding invitation is beautiful and formal notification of the desire to share a solemn and joyous occasion, sent by people who have been saying ‘Do we have to ask them?’ to people whose first response is ‘How much do you think we have to spend on them?’” — Judith Martin
- “Before you marry a person you should first make them use a computer with slow Internet to see who they really are.” — Will Ferrell
- “A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.” — Ruth Bell Graham
- “I love being married. It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.” —Rita Rudner
- “It is my advice to anyone getting married, that they should first see the other partner when drunk.” — Muriel Spark, “A Far Cry from Kensington”
- “I married for love but the obvious side benefit of having someone around to find my glasses cannot be ignored.” — Cameron Esposito
- “Love is sharing your popcorn.” ―Charles M. Schultz
- “To speak frankly, I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other’s character before marriage, which I think is never advisable.” — Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest”
- “My ability to persuade my wife to marry me was quite my most brilliant achievement.” — Winston Churchill
- “To keep your marriage brimming, / With love in the loving cup, / Whenever you’re wrong, admit it; /Whenever you’re right, shut up.” — Ogden Nash
- “Love involves a peculiar unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding.” — Diane Arbus
- “Make sure you marry someone who laughs at the same things you do.” ― J.D. Salinger
- “True love is singing karaoke ‘Under Pressure’ and letting the other person sing the Freddie Mercury part.” — Mindy Kaling
- “Love is a lot like a backache: it doesn’t show up on X-rays, but you know it’s there.” ―George Burns
Deep engagement quotes
- “Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” — Robert A. Heinlein
- “You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.” — E.M. Forster, “A Room with a View”
- “The roses, the lovely notes, the dining and dancing are all welcome and splendid. But when the Godiva is gone, the gift of real love is having someone who’ll go the distance with you. Someone who, when the wedding day limo breaks down, is willing to share a seat on the bus.” — Oprah Winfrey
- “There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.” — Martin Luther
- “There is an extraordinary energy that becomes available when two people in love literally step up to commit themselves to sacred union.” — Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway, “The Wedding Goddess”
- “Before this moment you have been many things to one another—acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, and even teacher, for you have learned much from one another in these last few years. Now you shall say a few words that take you across a threshold of life, and things will never quite be the same between you.” — Robert Fulghum, “From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives”
- “Love, real love, is not simply a state of bliss. It is an ever-changing state, the result of time and emotional development, of trust and commitment.” — Joyce Brothers
- “Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.” — Peter Ostinov
- “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. / I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight” — Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Sonnet 43”
- “Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments. Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds.” — William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 116”
- “Today, let this light bless you / With these friends let it bless you / With snow-scent and lavender bless you / Let the vow of this day keep itself wildly and wholly / Spoken and silent, surprise you inside your ears / Sleeping and waking, unfold itself inside your eyes / Let its fierceness and tenderness hold you / Let its vastness be undisguised in all your days.” — Jane Hirshfield, A Blessing for a Wedding
- “We lay together under the stars. / We know ourselves to be part of mystery. / It is unspeakable. / It is everlasting. / It is for keeps.” — Joy Harjo, “For Keeps”
- “That is what marriage really means; helping one another to reach the full status of being persons, responsible and autonomous beings who do not run away from life.” — Paul Tournier
- “Clasp me close in your warm young arms, / While the pale stars shine above, / And we’ll live our whole young lives away / In the joys of a living love.” — Ella Wheeler Wilcox, “I Love You”
- “This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love: the more they give, the more they possess.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
- “I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.” — Pablo Neruda, “Love Sonnet XVII”
- “Love from one being to another can only be that two solitudes come nearer, recognize and protect and comfort each other.” — Han Suyin
- “There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.” — George Sand
- “You have become mine forever. Yes, we have become partners. I have become yours. Hereafter, I cannot live without you. Do not live without me. Let us share the joys. We are word and meaning, united.” — from Hindu wedding vows
- “Hear the mellow wedding bells / Golden bells! / What a world of happiness their harmony foretells / Through the balmy air of night / How they ring out their delight!” — Edgar Allen Poe, “The Bells”
- “We find rest in those we love, and we provide a resting place in ourselves for those who love us.” — St. Bernard of Clairvaux
- “Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments.” — William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 116”
- “Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.” — Kahil Gibran, “On Marriage”
- “Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more perfect world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners might be found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.” — J. R. R. Tolkien
- “Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart. And they both take practice.” — Nora Roberts
Engagement quotes from songs and movies
- “But as long as there are stars above you / You never need to doubt it / I’ll make you so sure about it / God only knows what I’d be without you” — The Beach Boys, “God Only Knows”
- “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” — Harry Burns, from “When Harry Met Sally”
- “You’ll be the prince and I’ll be the princess / It’s a love story, baby, just say, ‘yes’”— Taylor Swift, “Love Story”
- “To me, you are perfect.” — Mark, from “Love Actually”
- “All along I believed I would find you / Time has brought your heart to me, I have loved you for a thousand years / I’ll love you for a thousand more.” — Christina Perri, “A Thousand Years”
- “If soulmates do exist, they’re not found. They’re made.” — Michael, from “The Good Place”
- “Lucky I’m in love with my best friend / Lucky to have been where I have been / Lucky to be coming home again.” —Colbie Caillat and Jason Mraz, “Lucky”
- “The first important thing to remember about marriage is that it requires commitment. The second important thing to remember about marriage is that so does insanity.” — George Barnes, “The Five Year Engagement”
- “It’s a beautiful night, we’re looking for something dumb to do / Hey baby, I think I wanna marry you” — Bruno Mars, “Marry You”
- “Take my hand, take my whole life, too / For I can’t help falling in love with you” — Elvis Presley, “Can’t Help Falling in Love”
- “Well, I found a woman, stronger than anyone I know / She shares my dreams, I hope that someday I’ll share her home” — Ed Sheeran, “Perfect”
- “The only thing that matters is that you make me happier than I ever thought I could be. And if you let me, I will spend the rest of my life trying to make you feel the same way.” — Chandler Bing, from “Friends”
- “Let’s, let’s stay together / Loving you whether, whether / Times are good or bad, happy or sad." — Al Green, “Let’s Stay Together”
- “You took the time to memorize me / My fears, my hopes and dreams / I just like hanging out with you / All the time / All those times that you didn’t leave / It’s been occurring to me / I’d like to hang out with you / For my whole life” — Taylor Swift, “Stay”
- “People do fall in love. People do belong to each other, because that’s the only chance that anyone’s got for true happiness.” — Paul Varjak, from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”
- “I love you more than I have ever found a way to say to you” — Ben Folds, “The Luckiest”
- “I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.” — Arwen, “Lord of the Rings”
- “Take me into your loving arms / Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars / Oh darling, place your head on my beating heart / I’m thinking out loud / That maybe we found love right where we are.” — Ed Sheeran, “Thinking Out Loud”
- “We are made of particles that have existed since the moment the universe began. I like to think those atoms traveled fourteen billion years through time and space to create us, so that we could be together and make each other whole.” — Leonard Hofstadter, from “The Big Bang Theory”
- “You are the best thing that's ever been mine” — Taylor Swift, “Mine”
More engagement quotes
- “One touchstone of marriage is security, and nothing makes you feel more secure than knowing exactly what another person is going to say or do at any given time.” — Anna Quindlen, “Living Out Loud”
- “Being married is like having somebody permanently in your corner. It feels limitless, not limited.” — Gloria Steinem
- “How much do I love thee? / Go ask the deep sea / How many rare gems / In its coral caves be.” — Mary Ashley Townsend, “How Much Do You Love Me? Inscribed to One Who Asked the Question”
- “Light, so low upon earth, / You send a flash to the sun. / Here is the golden close of love, / All my wooing is done.” —Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Marriage Morning”
- “Marriage is not a ritual or an end. It is a long, intricate, intimate dance together, and nothing matters more than your own sense of balance and your choice of partner.” — Amy Bloom
- “I have waited for this opportunity for more than half a century, to repeat to you once again my vow of eternal fidelity and everlasting love.” — Gabriel García Márquez, “Love In The Time Of Cholera”
- “Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get, only with what you are expecting to give — which is everything.” — Katharine Hepburn
- “Be drunk with Love, for Love is all that exists. Where is intimacy found if not in the give and take of Love.” — Rumi
- “For the two of us, home isn’t a place, it’s a person. And we’re finally home.” — Stephanie Perkins, “Anna and the French Kiss”
- “There is within each of us, I believe, a deep and holy hunger for sacred union.” — Sue Patton Thoele, “Heart-Centered Marriage”
- “Marriage is about working through the images and ideas of your imaginations and dreams.” — Marcus Small, “Becoming Married, Staying Married”
- “He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” — Emily Brontë, “Wuthering Heights”
- “I couldn’t tell fact from fiction / or if my dream was true / The only sure prediction / in this whole world was you.” —Maya Angelou, “Senses of Insecurity”
- “In a universe of ambiguity, this kind of certainty comes only once, and never again, no matter how many lifetimes you live.” — Robert James Waller, “The Bridges of Madison County”
- “There is no choice more intensely personal, after all, than whom you choose to marry; that choice tells us, to a large extent, who you are.” — Elizabeth Gilbert, “Committed”
- “I do love nothing in the world so well as you — is not that strange?” — William Shakespeare, “Much Ado About Nothing”
- “Pure love is a willingness to give without a thought of receiving anything in return.” — Peace Pilgrim
- “In real life, shouldn’t a wedding be an awesome party you throw with your great pal, in the presence of a bunch of your other friends? A great day, for sure, but not the beginning and certainly not the end of your friendship with a person you can’t wait to talk about gardening with the for the next forty years.” — Mindy Kaling
- “Soul meets soul on lovers’ lips” — Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Prometheus Unbound”
- “What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined for life?” — George Eliot, “Adam Bede”
