Pajiba

You don't need love like an aspirin for toothache. You need love like a brick through a blue window."

Elvis Costello, explaining "My Little Blue Window" from "When I Was Cruel"

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."

"To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring." - George Santayana

I have always loved this quote, I think it reflects a very healthy view of the world.

"The heart has its' reasons; whereas reason knows nothing..."

"I love you more than my luggage."

Because there is nothing that can't be cured by a hug from Olympia Dukakis.

"My life could be the poem I would have writ,
but I could not both live and utter it."
(Walden, I think)

That didn't help a damn bit, did it?

Because I totally had to add this one to the mix:

I kept asking Clarence why our world seemed to be collapsing and things seemed to be getting so shitty. And he'd say, "that's the way it goes, but don't forget, it goes the other way too." That's the way romance is... Usually, that's the way it goes, but every once in awhile, it goes the other way too.

or something Mr. Pink says to me on a regular basis:

You are my rock. Except way cuter.

"You need me like the wind needs the trees to blow in.
Like the moon needs poetry, you need me"
-From "Come Back From San Francisco" The Magnetic Fields

or

"and the little box is out on the sidewalk
next to the delicatessen
so the old man can sit on it and drink beer
and get knocked off it by his wife later in the day
while the sun is still shining

oh god it's wonderful
to get out of bed
and drink too much coffee
and smoke too many cigarettes
and love you so much"

-From "Steps" by Frank O'Hara

or

"I promise to make you more alive than you've ever been/...
For the first time, you'll note gravity's prick/
like a thorn in your heel,/
and your shoulder blades will hurt from the imperative of wings."

-From "Ordeal" by Nina Cassian

I could do this all day.

1) "Who in their right mind could possibly deny that the 20th century was mine....ALL OF IT!"

2) "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

3) "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."

4) "You can give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day, set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

There is nothing more romantic on earth than Yeats:

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Edgy but still romantic, courtesy of Johnny Marrs and Billy Bragg:

"The boy done good, the girl done better,
The seasons turn and we're still together,
The sky is still blue and tomorrow is another day"

-"Why do people have to die?"
-"To make life important. None of us know how long we've got. Which is why we have to make each day matter."
-This quote courtesy of Six Feet Under

I do have a few favourites, but I think this one is the best. From Ayn Rand:

"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours."

"Your heart is my piñata."

- Chuck Palahniuk

I have two from Tom Robbins (author of one of my favorite books, Still Life with WoodPecker):

"The highest function of love is that it makes the loved one a unique and irreplaceable being."

"We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love."

Not sure if they're appropriate though. :)

Other favorite quotes of mine not wedding related:

""I used to think that humor was the only way to appreciate how wonderful and terrible the world is, to celebrate how big life is .... But now I think it's the opposite. Humor is a way of shrinking from the wonderful and terrible world." -Jonathan Safron Foer

"Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly." -Neil Gaiman

"If you do not let me gut out this house, and make it my own, I will go insane, and I will TAKE YOU WITH ME!" -Delia, from Beetlejuice, one of my favorite line readings EVER

And I could copy all of Cummings' "The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock," but my favorite part was always:

There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet.
There will be time to murder and create,
and time for all the works and days of hands
that lift and drop a question on your plate.
Time for you and time for me,
and time yet for a hundred indecisions,
and for a hundred visions and revisions,
before the taking of a toast and tea.

I'm excited about this one! I have a collection of quotes. I have problems...
Anyway, as far as the wedding quote, this is one I am thinking about using myself; feel free to use it too:
"Talk not of wasted affection; affection never was wasted."
Longfellow

And becuase I have problems, here are some of my other favorites:

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
Sinclair Lewis

"People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true."
Terry Goodkind

"Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age."
James Joyce, Ulysses

"Inherited ideas are a curious thing, and interesting to observe and examine."
Mark Twain

"If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking you and beat love down."
Shakespeare

"Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie."
Terry Goodkind

"To understand is to perceive patterns."
Isaiah Berlin

"Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love."
Neil Gaiman

"I've lived too long with pain. I won't know who I am without it."
Ender, Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card

"This I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual."
Unknown

"Be able to defend your arguments in a rational way. Otherwise, all you have is an opinion."
Marilyn vos Savant

Ok, I think that's enough.

I love quotes.

"And I could copy all of Cummings' "The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock," but my favorite part was always:"

(Pssssst. Eliot)

Ooh! My bad Covered, I always get them mixed up :p

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

"If you think anyone is sane, you just don't know enough about them." - The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore.

I don't know if it counts since it's a quotation from a book, but meh. It pretty much sums up my view of people in general. Obviously not wedding invitation-worthy, unless your spouse-to-be has an incredible sense of humour and doesn't mind if everyone on your guest list thinks you're warped.

Julie:

"Verbing weirds language" has always been one of my favorites.

"All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his. "

Oscar Wilde

Shakespeare #116 is a classic, you know,
"Let not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments" yada, yada.

I love Dorothy Parker for quotes.
"Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words"

I'm not much into details, but shouldn't the quote come from The Princess Bride?

"Ah, lover and perfect equal!
I meant that you should discover me so, by my faint indirections;
And I, when I meet you, mean to discover you by the like in you."- Walt Whitman...I guess you've already met. But it still brings the romance.

Bistro, that line is definitely from Heathers. It's one of my faves.

"If you didn't exist I would have to make you up."

"There is no remedy for love but to love more."

"Whoso loves, believes the impossible."

And the best love poem I've ever read: Resignation by Nikki Giovanni

gunter Marry me?

p.s. It's SPIRIT CRUSHING, I said.

"Before I met you, I had so many problems. But now, I only have one. Marriage, man; it gave my life such focus."

show me a good loser and i'll show you a loser.

let's see...romantic quotes...I am too hungry to thnk right now...
"love is an evil word" - Leroi Jones
(man, some very naughty poems by ee cummings are flitting into my head but I will refrain.)
my favorite all-time quote (today anyway) is from Fiddler Jones - "The earth keeps some vibration going/there in your heart/and that is you"

"Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four?"

"It's not the side-effects of the cocaine, I'm thinking that it must be love"
-From the title track of Station to Station by (naturally) David Bowie

One more for good measure:

"If the sea were of ink and the sky of parchment, I could not begin to write my love for you."

The source is better than the actual quote.

/don't use it unless you are familiar with the source- you'll regret it.

I have a chair for you in the smallest parlor in the world, to wit, my heart.
"Emily Dickinson"

'What do you do if every time you see this one incredible woman, you think you're gonna hurl?'

'I say hurl. If you blow chunks and she comes back, she's yours. But if you spew and she bolts, then it was never meant to be.'

There you go, Julie. Ask and ye shall receive.

"Hope for the best, prepare for the worst."

Sorry, recently divorced and incurably jaded...

"If you love somebody, set them on fire."
~Dead Milkmen

For me, the two best lines ever:




"Dude, pick up some beer...and some cleaning products." Brad Pitt's finest performance EVER.




"To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women." Great stuff - I think I'll try using that one on my next job interview.

Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.
~ Robert Browning

I clearly have a thing about growing old together.

Damnit, it's for a wedding! I was so set to post, "I won't close the Arby's...I'll board it up, open the windows, and let nature have at it.", but we're going for wedding invitation and not general quotes. (I still love that one though.) However, if it's a wedding quote you want, how about:

"Do you love me?
Will you love me forever?
Do you need me?
Will you never leave me?
Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life?
Will you take me away and will you make me your
Wife?
I gotta know right now
Before we go any further
Do you love me !!!?
Will you love me forever !!!?"

- Meat Loaf, Paradise By The Dashboard Light

It's perfectly symbolic of that last moment at the altar, but then again that could just be me. Plus, it depends on your tolerance for Meat Loaf outside of Fight Club.

"The entire sum of existence is the magic of being needed by just one other person."
-Vi Putnam

for the more mathimatically-minded...

p.s. wanderer:

i have that vonnegut quote tattooed on my foot ;)

Murray: Jemaine, you should think about that. I've told you -- when you're in a band, you don't get with your bandmate's girlfriend, past or present.

Jemaine: Yes, well thanks for that.

Murray: You get a love triangle. You know? Fleetwood Mac situation. Well, there was four of them, so more of a love square, but you know, no one gets on.

Jemaine: Okay, I see.

Murray: Mind you, they did make some of their best music back then.

Bret: "Rumours"

Murray: No, that's all true.

-Flight of the Conchords

"Do, or do not. There is no 'try'."

This is an entire sonnet and therefore may be too long for an invitation, but it expresses for me EXACTLY the love I feel for my husband. If I had found it before my wedding I would have used it, but since I didn't, I'm gonna pass it along and maybe someone else will.
Congratulations!

"Give me a place to stand," Archimedes said,

"and I can move the world." Paradoxical, clever,

his remark which first explained the use of the lever

was an academic joke. But if that dead

sage could return to life, he would find a clear

demonstration of his idea, which is not

pure theory after all. That putative spot

exists in the love I feel for you, my dear.

What could be more immovable or stronger?

What becomes more and more secure, the longer

it is battered by inconstancy and the stress

we find in our lives? Here is that fine fixed point

from which to move a world that is out of joint,

as he could have done, had he known a love like this.

Wow, it seems I mostly listen to music that's down on love....

"You're all I notice
In a crowded room"
Smashing Pumpkins--Medellia of the Gray Skies

"A dreamer of pictures
I run in the night
You see us together,
chasing the moonlight"
--Neil Young--Cinnamon Girl

"But my home is where my heart is
And my heart is not at home
Whenever we are parted"
Thin Lizzie--Sweet Marie

And of course:
"Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy
'Cause of you"
CSN&Y--Our House

Fave non-love quote:

"Reality is for those who lack imagination"--don't know who wrote it, but I saw it in a fortune cookie

haha! Mike R, I love that exchange

damnit Johnny, you know how I love my beef brisket with cheddar!"

but no, it is not exactly wedding invitation material...

I am so glad to see the Velveteen Rabbit quote. That is still one of my favorite stories.

Being a huge Zepplin fan, I plan to play this song at my own wedding:

Thank You (from Led Zepplin II)

If the sun refused to shine I would still be loving you.
When the mountains crumble to the sea there will still be you and me.
Kind woman I give you my all. Kind woman nothing more.
Little drops of rain whisper of the pain, tears of loves lost in the days gone by.
My love is strong, with you there is no wrong.
Together we shall go until we die. (My my my)
An inspiration is what you are to me, inspiration, look...see.
And so today my world it smiles. Your hand in mine we walk the miles.
Thanks to you it will be done for you to me are the only one.
Happiness, no more be sad. Happiness I'm glad.
If the sun refused to shine I would still be loving you.
When the mountains crumble to the sea there will still be you and me.

(source: http://lyrics.led-zeppelin.us/Albums/LZ02.html)

None of mine are appropriate for a wedding invitation, but still favorites. The first two are gems from my mother:
"This too shall pass." and "You can't judge others based on your own merits."

Lastly, and I don't know where it came from: "I wanted only to live in accordance with the promptings that came from my true self. Why was this so very difficult?"

Great quotes from everyone!

on marriage, i think:

Long after the congratulants have presented their best wishes
and the indulgence of strangers is gone, after the delight of dare
for joining sides and thirst has tempered, unspoken words
of a private language press against each other
like hares keeping out of the cold - the sheltering syntax of pleasure
burning, brightening the nightscented frost.
but in the distance, in the shivers of a wind beaten flame
lives a sigh where you should laugh, as reason bolts like the moon
chasing a stray cloud, jealous of its sedition.
then with body and blood outrung the heartcloth may seem twisted dry,
but like an hourglass the funnel opens out again
and love, like percussive snow, streams down to the openhearted.

Maybe better for a funeral than a wedding but...

Do You Realize - that everyone you know someday will die

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes - let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

No promises.
No expectations.
No obligations.
You don't even have to respond.
I simply love you.

raindog
Alas, I am already married. Mr Dangle would surely frown upon my going all polygamist on his ass. But MST3K is totally romantic!

"I'm gonna curl up in his sock drawer and sleep for days."

"I blue myself."
Dr. Tobias Funke, licensed Analrapist
Not at all romantic, but still my favorite quote!

"I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation."

From my dead gay soulmate Somerset Maugham. Oh how I LOVESSSSS him.

Nice Jack Handey quotes. My favorite is the one about Disneyland -

"One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to Disneyland, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. "Oh, no," I said. "Disneyland burned down." He cried and cried, but I think that deep down, he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real Disneyland, but it was getting pretty late."

More of a block quote. BUT STILL HILARIOUS.

hee hee, I also want to use the marriage ceremony from Princess Bride--verbatim! "Mawiage, that bwessed awangement, that dweam within a dweam. Mawiage is what bwings togetha today." Do you Pwincess Buttacup..." "Skip to the end." "Have you the wings?" "Say man and wife!" "Man and wife" I probably didn't get it all but I have time to watch PB again before September. I doubt my officiant will go for it though.

Gudrun--Handey gave an interview not long ago where he confessed that was basically a true story :)

NPR's Fair Game with Faith Salie, from 4/11/08

And I don't know how I survived those days
Before I held your hand
Well I never thought that I would be the one
To admit that the moon and the sun
Shine so much more brighter when
Seen through two pairs of eyes than
When seen through just one

Have you ever seen a sight as beautiful
As a face in a crowd of people
That lights up just for you?

Have you ever felt more fresh or wonderful
As when you wake
By the side of that boy or girl
Who has pledged their love to you?

Well I have known all these things
And the joys that they can bring
And now every morning there's a cup of coffee
And I wear your ring

Cowboy Junkies, Anniversary Song

"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." - Kurt Cobain

"I'll bring home the turkey if you bring home the bacon."

-Weezer, 'El Scorcho'

Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity.
-Bullet-tooth Tony, from Snatch

Ryan Adams has some pretty good ones, but one of the best is at the very end of "English Girls Approximately":

"Just three words, my love . . . you meant everything."

Lil' Wayne talking about no longer doing cocaine because he got bad acne is not wedding appropriate I imagine.

Not for the Weddings:
Hobo: Do you have the time?
Guy: Quarter past seven.
Hobo: Do you think we'll make it?
Guy: To where?
Hobo: To wherever we're going.
Guy: Yes.

Maybe for the weddings:
Oh, I'm not saying love doesn't exist...just that I'm not going to ever have any, so why shouldn't I just settle for money and sex?

Arthur: I have often thought that in the hereafter of our lives, when I owe no more to the future and can be just a man, that we may meet, and you will come to me and claim me as yours, and know that I am your husband. It is a dream I have...

Cyndi Lauper: if you're lost you can look--and you will find me
time after time
if you fall I will catch you--I'll be waiting
time after time

Love means never having to say you're sorry....

That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard.
What's Up Doc

Dr. Wilson: Beauty often seduces us on the road to truth.
Dr. Gregory House: And triteness kicks us in the nads.

Thecox: Reminds me of this one: "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."

Love this from Four Weddings and a Funeral (movie blows after this moment)----
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

And, Shaun of the Dead,

Well, fuck a doodle do!

"...so I've got that going for me, which is nice."

"Hello
I've waited here for you
Everlong"
--Foo Fighters

Bistro--Some days, old NPR podcasts are all that keep me from slitting my own throat at work.... :)

People, people! I'm trying to copy some of these as fast as I can, but you're not telling me who said them! Leave song titles and writer names people! Jeez!

Because I lost my dog of 13 1/2 years last night...

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die.

Mary Frye (1932)

"We could write our names here in the mud
No one's around to see them
We could hang our shoes here in a tree
No one's around to steal them
I could give you a star
You could give me one too
That way we'd be even
And I could sing a song way out of tune
And not care a bit about it

We could both wear cowboy hats
And pretend that we could speak Italian
I could eat some gum
And make my breath so minty fresh
To kiss you
Your breath will smell like wine
I like that a lot
Especially when I kiss you
And I could hit my funny bone really hard
And you could call me sweetheart

And who ever said there's nothing new under the sun
Never thought much about individuals
But he's dead anyway

So lets go down together
Down together
Well lets go down together
Down together
Down together

We could all wear ripped up clothes
And pretend that we were Dead Hot Workshop
I could drive a long long way
And not even have the gas to make it back
We could chase our shadows around the lawn
Until we're both exhausted
I could forget the words here one more time
And hope that no one notices

And whoever said there's nothing new under the sun
Never thought much about me

What's good for you is good for me
And what's bad for you is bad for me
What's good for you is good for me
And what's bad for you is bad for me

Cars break and people break down and other things break down too
So lets go down together
Down together
Down together
Lets go down together
Down together
Down together"

-- The Refreshments, "Down Together"

Jayco, condolances!

How to narrow it down! Here are four good ones:

"Love is never merely an amiable tolerance of whatever form human frailty and folly may take."
~ Josiah Royce, American philosopher

"To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead."
~ Bertrand Russell, British philosopher

"What mattered was that everyone was connected in a web, that pain was part of the web, and yet despite it, people loved one another. That's what you found out when you got older, he said." ~Frank Conroy, "Gossip"

"August is the month when undone summer things must be finished or regretted all through the winter."
~ James Alan McPherson, "Gold Coast"

Jayco- yeah, what Julie said. I'm so sorry. And I loved that poem you shared.

I am not even going to start on Simpsons quotes but I do have a Kipling line that MIGHT be wedding appropriate (even though it comes from one of the saddest love stories I have ever read). It is from Without Benefit of Clergy, a short story appearing in Life's Handicap:

"I bear witness'--the lips were forming the words on his ear--'that there is no God but--thee, beloved!'"
source: http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/LifesHandicap/withoutclergy.html)

Like the Simpsons and Princess Bride, Kipling is infinitely quotable.

This contest makes me think of the line "Say something perfect, something I can steal" in the song Baby, We'll Be Fine by The National.

"Love you whenever we're together, love you with all of my heart"
"For the things you do endear me to you, oh, you know, I will"
Both of those are from I Will, by The Beatles.

"Nothing else will do, I've gotta have you."
--Gotta Have You, The Weepies

"Yours is the first face that I saw. I swear I was blind before I met you."
-- First Day of my Life, Bright Eyes

"I have built a tree house. Nobody can see us; it's a you and me house"
-- Treehouse, I'm From Barcelona

"Oh, it is love, from the first time I set my eyes upon yours, thinking, 'Oh, is it love?'"
--Oh, It Is Love, Hellogoodbye (yeah, they're a relatively lame band but this song is freakin adorable)

"Seems that all I really was doing, was waiting for you"
-- Real Love, John Lennon

Brigitte--I love Kipling!

I think a lot of the quotes I find romance-y are really un-romance-y wehn taken in context, for example:

"There were times where we were stupid kids
and it was all a game
but as for now, this is the best night of my life"

(goes on to say "and these are things I often think about
but it's a waste of time
'cause you're not here
I'm not sober
it's not 1999")
The Ergs--Every Romance Language

I'm not a very romance-y person.

The following is long, but it's my favorite:

"We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep - it's as simple and ordinary as that. A few jump out of windows or drown themselves or take pills; more die by accident; and most of us, the vast majority, are slowly devoured by some disease or, if we're very fortunate, by time itself. There's just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we've ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) knows these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything for more. Heaven only knows why we love it so." --Michael Cunningham, The Hours

And being gay, I like the following, too: "I hope the fact that I'm gay isn't the most interesting part of me." --T.R. Knight

As for weddings, I don't know how much I can help with that. However, as a wedding videographer, there is one common reading that I beg you not to use: first Corinthians. "Love is patient, love is kind, it does not boast, etc. etc..." Sweet Jesus am I tired of hearing that at weddings.

Why don't you go back to your home on Whore Island?

Frumpiefox, you are my new best friend! I sometimes wish Pajiba would offer an Afternoon Diversion devoted to Kipling but I doubt there are many Kipling fans (besides us) that visit here.

"Stay crunchy. Even in milk."
- Joss Whedon

"The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is." - Winston Churchill.

And this requires his cadence, but:

"Because we are not a collection of red states and blue states. We are the United States of America. And in this moment, in this election, we are ready to believe again." - Barack Obama, January 3, 2008.

HEAVEN!

At my wedding, we actually had non-romantic quotes about love/marriage with our favours because I collect quotations and have done for about 23 years.

For the wedding -

Anyone can be passionate, but it takes true lovers to be silly.

Any marriage where the female is allowed to speak and wear clothing is doomed to failure. Deep Space Nine

Nothing is too wonderful to be true. (Okay, that one is sort of romantic)

I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury. Groucho Marx
- I actually wrote that in silver ink on a picture frame and gave to my husband for Valentine's Day with our wedding photo .

My favourite quotes -

Merely corroborative detail intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald unconvincing narrative. WS Gilbert

He made a minor vocabulary error and she inwardly, magnanimously, forgave him. Carrie Fisher

I am not going to stop talking to him merely because he pays no attention. I like hearing myself talk. It is one of my greatest pleasures. I often have long conversations all by myself, and I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying. Oscar Wilde

It was beginning to test the limits of my cool. Haruki Murakami

The lyrics to Natalie Merchant's Life Is Sweet.

So many more, but so little time.

"Love isn't brains, children, it's blood. Blood screamin' inside you to work its will. I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it." -Spike, from Buffy season 3

and

"Love is like an onion; you just keep peeling away layer after stinking layer until you're weeping over the sink." -from 30 Rock

Brigette: I would gladly participate in that diversion! Just between the "Just So Stories" and "Riki-Tiki-Tavi" there must be oodles of great quotes.

"Truth, work, ambition, love itself may be only counters in the lamentable or despicable game of life, but when one takes a hand one must play the game."
Joseph Conrad--Victory

"Love is a direction which excludes all other directions."
D. H. Lawrence--Women in Love

I have 3

(1) "The male ego, with few exceptions, is elephantine to start with." (Bette Davis)

(2) "I think i'm going to have a heartattack...but more out of boredom than stress" (Lauren Kehoe-- A friend musing on our Family Law class review.)

(3)"If you want the girl next door, go next door" (Joan Crawford)

"Beware the penguins" - Bud Ice Commercial

Also, one of my favorite simple little poems by Yeats:

Wine comes in at the mouth
and love comes in at the eye;
that's all we shall know for truth
before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.

one more

"gentlemen, you cannot fight in here, this is the WAR room" (Peter Sellers as President in Dr. Strangelove.)

'These are hard times for dreamers.'
-from Amelie

"As frothing wounds of roses
Harry summer over a wintry sea,
So does thy very strangeness
Bring me ever nearer thee"
Kenneth Patchen--As Frothing Wounds of Roses

"Everyone wants stuff. We wake up everyday with a list of wishes a mile long and maybe we spend our lives trying to make those wishes come true. But just because we want them doesn't mean we need them to be happy."

Ned, The Piemaker - Pushing Daisies, "Bitches"

"My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music."
-Vladimir Nabokov

Some amazing love quotes by Fred Rogers, yes "Mr. Rogers". The last one is my favorite and was on my engagement announcement.



"When we love a person, we accept him or her exactly as is: the lovely with the unlovely, the strong along with the fearful, the true mixed in with the facade, and of course, the only way we can do it is by accepting ourselves that way." -- Fred Rogers




"Love is generally confused with dependence. Those of us who have grown in true love know that we can love only in proportion to our capacity for independence." -- Fred Rogers

"Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now." -- Fred Rogers

"I love you for what you are, but I love you more for what you are going to be. I love you not so much for your realities as for your ideals.

I pray for your desires that they may be great, rather than for your satisfactions, which may be so hazardously little.

The most beautiful rose is one hardly more than a bug wherein the pangs and ecstasies of desire are working for a larger and finer growth.

You are going towards something great. I am on the way with you, and therefore I love you."
Carl Sandburg

" I know you like the back of my hand with a stamp that says I paid to get in" ~Joan Osbourne

Four Eyes, it is so funny you made that typo "weedings". That is the term my friend and I now use for MY weeding--see, it is ingrained--because one of us made that typo in an email--about my weeding dress. (I am not ragging you about making typos--I do it all the time and I make my living typing.)

Ok, so I like lyrics to Carpenters songs. Here are a couple:

"I'm on top of the world looking down on creation and the only explanation I can find is the love that I've found ever since you've been around, your love's put me on the top of the world."
-Carpenters

"We've only just begun to live. White lace and promises, a kiss for luck and were on our way, we've only just begun"
-Carpenters

And some others...

"Pardon the egg salad stains, but I'm in love."
-Billy Collins

"It's no good pretending that any relationship has a future if your record collections disagree violently or if your favorite films wouldn't even speak to each other if they met at a party."
-Nick Hornby

"LIVE! Otherwise, you got nothing to talk about in the locker room."
-Harold and Maude

"...but I STILL haven't found what I'm looking for!"
-U2

Sorry, out of my system.

"I'll make every last moment last, as long as your mine."
-Stephen Schwartz

I've always loved the lines from "Sweet Thing" by Van Morrison:

We shall walk and talk
In gardens all misty and wet with rain
And I will never, never, never
Grow so old again.
Oh sweet thing

kind of cheesy, but I love that song.

"I want to kill robotic zombie terrorists with you. You can even have the deluxe shotgun with explosive scattershot. I'll just use this knife over here."

Aw! TK has been posting love notes to Mrs. TK on Craig's List again. So sweet!

favourite love quote:
"i could drink a case of you and still be on my feet" - joni mitchell

and general quotes....
"life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans"
- john lennon

"and did you get what you wanted from this life, even so?
i did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved. To feel myself beloved on this earth."
- Raymond Carver

OK, now I'm on a roll. "Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome." Booker T. Washington

I always liked this one from Family Ties:

"The meaning of life? That's simple. Try to be happy, try not to hurt other people, and hope to fall in love." -- Mallory Keaton

No words to say
no words to convey
this feeling inside, I have for you
Deep in my heart
safe from the guards...of intellect and reason

Tracy Chapman

"I've never been with a 10, but one night I had 5 2's and I consider that a positive achievement"

George Carlin

"I wear my wedding ring on the wrong finger cause I married the wrong God dammed woman"

Robin Harris

frumpiefox, the knowledge that that actually, truly happened has made my week. I only hope one day one of my siblings will reproduce because I now feel pulling the same prank on my own niece or nephew is perfectly reasonable.

"Our love is god. Let's go get a slushie." -- Heathers

"Forget the virgins. We're out of virgins."
-Adventures of Baron Munchausen

jayco, such sad news.

i read your post, looked at my 8 year old dog and cried.

our thoughts are with you.

I don't know if this is my FAVORITE quote, but it's from my favorite movie, Adaptation. It's become somewhat of a mantra for me.

"You are what you love, not what loves you. That's what I decided a long time ago."

On a less serious tone, I always rely on the wisdom of George Carlin:

"Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy."

I can't BELIEVE that no one has gone for:

I want somebody to share,
share the rest of my life.
Share my innermost thoughts.
Know my intimate details...

Depeche Mode, "Somebody." I thought everyone knew it's the most romantic song ever.

My favorite quote is:

"When I was driving once I saw this painted on a bridge:/ 'I don't want the world, I just want your half." - They Might be Giants (Ana Ng)

Some quotes for a wedding invite:

"Your love is better than ice cream..." - Sarah McLachlan (Ice Cream)

"I'm happy at home/ You're my best friend." - Queen (You're My Best Friend)

"...[W]hen 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." - When Harry Met Sally

"Tell me I'll never have to be out there again./ You'll never have to be out there again." - When Harry Met Sally

"The man who jokes in the executioners face can be destroyed but never defeated." - Tom Robbins

"Language is courage. The ability to conceive a thought, and by speaking it, making it so." - Salman Rushdie

"My personal motto has always been joy inspite of everything, not just (mindless) joy, but joy in spite of everything." - Tom Robbins

"Well my dad, he told me, 'Looking back...the best friend you'll have is a railroad track.'" -Tom Waits

This isnt really appropriate for 'marriage' as such, but its still my favorite love themed poem.

I translated it, so I may have taken liberties with the original text.

I loved you, and perhaps still do,
The flame may not be extinguished; yet
It burns so quietly within my soul,
No longer should you feel distressed by it.
Silently and hopelessly I loved you,
At times too jealous and at times too shy.
God grant you find another who will love you
As tenderly and truthfully as I.
-Pushkin

These are all from The Lady's Not For Burning by Christopher Fry:

"Love still pitches his tent of light among the suns and moons. You may be decay and a platitude of flesh, but I have no other such memory of life. You may be corrupt as ancient apples, well then Corruption is what I most willingly harvest. You are Evil, Hell, the Father of Lies; if so Hell is my home and my days of good were a holiday: Hell is my hill and the world slopes away from it Into insignificance. I have come suddenly upon my heart and where it is I see no help for it."

"But whenever my thoughts are cold and I lay them Against Richard's name, they seem to rest On the warm ground where summer sits as golden as a humblebee."

"I have become a woman, Richard, because I love you. I know I was a child three hours ago. And yet I love you as deeply as many years could make me, But less deeply than many years will make me."

"Everything I loved Before has come to one meeting place in you And you have gone out into everything I love."

i thought of a few more, but these really have nothing to do with weddings!

from my favorite poem by pablo neruda, "tonight i can write": ...the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

i also love the "ana ng" quote La Femme Nikita posted above: i don't want the world, i just want your half.

from american beauty: it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world.

from the beatles' blackbird: take these broken wings and learn to fly

I am not afraid. . . I was born to do this. -Joan of Arc

Here begins the new life. -C.S. Lewis

Mornings now, when I wake up, I have this springy, hopeful feeling, and I see that everything was worth it, after all. -Anne Tyler

When you love somebody and you bite your tongue, all you get is a mouthful of blood. -Fruit Bats

Strtwise, that's a beautiful translation. I think part of translating a poem or prose is making it work in the new language, because a direct, literal translation might not really sing. So nice job.

"faminist"... really, sarah? lame.

Quote from the greatest Valentines Day Card

"I Choo-Choo Choose You"

and because it was on recently

"Beer You, Beer Me" (needs to be sung)

"Damn Pookie, you got a big dick"

As said to Pookie one night by a crack addict.

Inspired by TK and socalled

Freedom an whisky gang thegither

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

Another favorite.

I wish I was a fisherman
tumblin' on the seas
far away from dry land
and it's bitter memories
castin' out my sweet line
with abandonment and love
no ceiling bearin' down on me
save the starry sky above
with light in my head
with you in my arms...
i wish i was the brakeman
on a hurtlin fevered train
crashin head long into the heartland
like a cannon in the rain
with the feelin of the sleepers
and the burnin of the coal
countin the towns flashin by
and a night that's full of soul
with light in my head
with you in my arms...

And I know I will be loosened
from the bonds that hold me fast
and the chains all around me
will fall away at last
and on that grand and fateful day
I will take thee in my hand
I will ride on a train
I will be the fisherman
With light in my head
You in my arms... The Waterboys

Unconditional love. That's what this is. I love him, as is, fully. I've had to stop arm wrestling with the facts. Why me? Didn't I already have a big love once? And lost it? So why should I get it again? I've had stop trying to look for cracks and flaws to prove that it's not as good a it seems. Because it's as good as it seems. Even when we fight we fight inside a container of good.
Somehow, through a flip of the coin, I ended up here. Feeling like somebody at the top of the heart-lung transplant recipient list. Damaged but invigorated and fucking lucky.

"Magical Thinking"
Augusten Burroughs

I spent all afternoon reading these quotes, thinking how it kind of sucked that I had nothing to contribute... and then by fate, came across this one just now for the first time:

"It is not every day that you walk toward a place you have never been before and feel that you are coming home."

I think that sums up love and marriage pretty nicely, at least what my perception of it is, without being overly sappy. At the very least, it causes me to let you a tiny, smiley sigh. (Maybe even with an asterisk attached to it, like: *sigh. Just one though!)

KiwiBrownn I could go on and on with Morrissey lyrics. Stop me!

Ah Elle, The Little Prince is my favorite.

oops... should've been "out" and not "you"... not sure what I was smoking

"Johnny Fontane never gets that movie! That part is perfect for him, it'll make him a big star, and I'm gonna run him out of the business, and let me tell you why. Johnny Fontane ruined one of Woltz International's most valuable proteges. For five years we had her under training. Singing lessons, acting lessons, dancing lessons. I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on her, I was gonna make her a big star! And let me be even more frank, just to show you that I'm not a hard-hearted man, and that it's not all dollars and cents. She was beautiful! She was young! She was innocent! She was the greatest piece of ass I've ever had, and I've had 'em all over the world! And then Johnny Fontane comes along with his olive oil voice and guinea charm, and she runs off. She threw it all away just to make me look ridiculous! And a man in my position can't afford to be made to look ridiculous!"

~Jack Woltz

Keaton always said, "I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of him." Well, I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Soze.

Huzzah! A comment diversion I feel qualified to partake in! Even if I limit myself by sticking to the ones remotely relevant to Jessika's requests, I have far too many favorites, so bear with me:

First, my high school yearbook quote:
"Then you told me I was crazy-
I said I was born that way
And we must have said those same two lines
Twenty times a day" - "It All Fades Away" by Stan Rogers

Then, a classic Einstein:
"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

Then we have ANYTHING from the Beatles' "Real Love:"
Just like little girls and boys
Playing with their little toys
Seems like all they really were doing
Was waiting for love

Don't need to be alone
No need to be alone
It's real love
Yes, it's real love
Oh, it's real love
Yes, it's real love

From this moment on I know
Exactly where my life will go
Seems that all I really was doing
Was waiting for love...

Thought i'd been in love before
But in my heart I wanted more
Seems like all I really was doing
Was waiting for you"

...Probably more to come.

Because quoting Rumours seemed a bit over the top even for me:
"well i need a sugar daddy
he could be my friend
and if i needed money
i know he would lend me a hand
CHORUS:
but when it comes to loving
he'd better leave me alone
'cause i've got you baby
and you give me all the love i need
yes, you give me all the love i need

and when i get a little hungry
he could give me all i could eat
and if i needed whiskey
he could serve it to me neat
(Chorus)"
Fleetwood Mac Sugar Daddy

Corny, but:
"To see the world in a grain of sand
And Heaven in a wildflower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour."

William Blake

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
-Ben Franklin

You want ROMANCE?
Check it:

"I love you like a fat kid loves cake."

Fiddy Cent.

Man.
Philosopher.
Bullet receptacle.

Eleanor, I loooove that Van Morrison song and planned to quote from it the moment I saw this.

"And I will raise my hand
Up into the night-cloud sky
Count the stars that shine in your eyes
Just to dig it all
Not to wonder
That's just fine
And I'll be satisfied not to read in between the lines."
- Van Morrison, Sweet Thing

From the same album (Astral Weeks)
Then we sat on our own star and dreamed of the way that we were
And the way that we were meant to be
Then we sat on our own star and dreamed of the way that I was for you
And you were for me
And then we danced the night away
And turned to each other, say, i love you, I love you
The way that young lovers do
- Van Morrison, "The Way Young Lovers Do"

I'm a huge Jack Handey fan.
"When I die, I want to go peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not crying and screaming like the passengers in his car."

"What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round' the sun
And when we meet on a cloud
I'll be laughing out loud
I'll be laughing with everyone I see
Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all"
-Neutral Milk Hotel, "In the Aeroplane over the Sea"

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.
-Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Michael Bluth: I want the guy with the one arm and the fake blood. J. Walter Weatherman. How do I get a hold of him?
George, Sr.: Oh, he's dead. You killed him when you left the door open with the air conditioner on.

"Desperation breeds liars."

"I've fired many people today. But I did it because I love you back. I'm very misguided."

"Maybe it's not too late to shake hands and say, "Heeey, truce?" Because fuck. You know what hurts more than emotional pain? Yeah. Getting your head slammed into the fucking wall."

"This great man was not brought down by my vagina, okay?"

"Remember when you said that all you wanted was me? Well, now you know better."

"Sometimes it takes a crazy person to see the truth. If so, I'm a freaking lunatic."

"Anyone can *read* the news *to* you. What I plan to do is *feel* the news *at* you."

"This is where I felt it the first time. The universe was cocking the fuck-with-me gun."

"How about a hot cup of shut the fuck up?"

Dr. Robert Chase: How'd you like it if I interfered in your personal life?
Dr. Gregory House: I'd hate it. That's why, cleverly, I have no personal life.

"Like I always say, there's no "I" in team. There's a "me" though, if you jumble it up."

"Who would win in a fight - a big, strong guy or an invisible fat guy?"

"We're circling each other like Venezuelan flamingos engaged in a complex mating dance."

"I'll give you six bucks to hug the giant chicken."

"I killed your zombie bug this time. Please don't ever make me do that again."

I have been able to use ALL of those but the vagina one. I don't have a vagina.

"Cell phones and stars only tease you...they never take you home."
-the damnwells

If I should die this very moment
I wouldn`t fear
for I`ve never known completeness
like being here
wrapped in the warmth of you
loving every breath of you
still my heart this moment
oh it might burst

could we stay right here
till the end of time until the earth stops turning
wanna love you until the seas run dry
I`ve found the one I`ve waited for

all this time I`ve loved you
and never known your face
all this time I`ve missed you
and searched this human race
here is true peace
here my heart knows calm
safe in your soul
bathed in your sighs
wanna stay right here
till the end of time
till the earth stops turning
gonna love you until the seas run dry
I`ve found the one I`ve waited for

Lamb. Gorecki. Perfection.

Julia: I too love "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."

But CUMMINGS??? NO no no. T.S. Eliot.

I like a little Dorothy Parker cynicism:
"By the time you swear you're his/shivering and sighing/and he says his passion is infinite, undying/lady make a note of this/one of you is lying."

"I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment only-
that unnoticed, that necessary."

-Margaret Atwood

Back to the font of wisdom that is Jack Handy. This one's on point for your wedding. Sort of.

"He was a cowboy, mister, and he loved the land. He loved it so much he made a woman out of dirt and married her. But when he kissed her, she disintegrated. Later, at the funeral, when the preacher said: Dust to dust, some people laughed, and the cowboy shot them. At his hanging, he told the others: I'll be waiting for you in heaven - with a gun."

"I want to touch you with the feather of forgiveness
I want to put you in a light that will hurt your eyes"

Polvo

Reading all of these reminded me of something that was quoted to me years ago. It's from a translation of 'Going blind' by Rilke I think.

"She smiled once. It was almost painful."

Not exactly suitable for a wedding, but I remember thinking it was beautiful.

I'm using this quote to toast my future husband at our rehearsal dinner:
"Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly."--Rose Franken

"I hope that one day you'll know the indescribable joy of having children, and of paying someone else to raise them."
~ Gomez Addams, 'Addams Family Values'

"Doubt that the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love"- Hamlet

(What?!? I'm an English teacher)

"I want to do with you what spring does to the cherry trees" That might be a little racy??!??

"A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people's patience." - John Updike
"The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw
"If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding it can't be taken on its own merits." - Dan Barker
"It is not enough to succeed, others must fail." - Gore Vidal
"I may be drunk, miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you, will still be ugly." - Winston Churchill

Those were for me, and now one for the bride:

"Remember when I moved in you, and the holy dove was moving too, and every breath we drew was hallelujah." - Bob Dylan by voice of Jeff Buckley

Knowledge is a weapon, and I intend to be formidably armed. ~Terry Goodkind

Presentation is dangerous
You move or you taste dust
Life is coming for us and it loves that resistance
Flawless you are in the distance-
Oh Brilliance, shall we dance?

-Frente

OR
in keeping with the cummings love...

wine comes in at the mouth
and love comes in at the eye
that's all we shall know for truth
before we grow old and die
i lift the glass to my mouth
i look at you, and i sigh

Nobody posted anything from Gibran yet? Seriously?Jeez. Suck on this, then:

When love beckons to you follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

.... if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

from The Prophet, of course.

"Now doesnt even compare to tomorrow and tomorrow coludnt possibly compete with the next day. As perfect as this moment feels, tomorrow is even going to be better." (The Duke & I by Julia Quinn)

Awwwwwwwwww

I was reading the book when I came across that quote, man i just had to write it down.

Let us know what one you for and congratulations.

Mmm, I'm a little bit lonely these days.
-Herman Blume

If you want some ee for the wedding, I managed to fit these two into the ceremony -

love is a place

for love am in i am in you are in we

"Since the beginning of time, man has yearned to destroy the sun!"
- C. Montgomery Burns

"I'm tryin' to contain an outbreak here, and you're drivin' the monkey to the airport!"
- Hank Hill

"I think boxing is a lot like a ballet, except there's no music and no choreography, and the dancers hit each other."
- Jack Handey

"because I know that the sound of your heart is a god I can trust"
-It's All Gunna Break by Broken Social Scene

Thanks Jacque!

Ok, so this has put me in a sappy mood, but I love this one:

There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer. No disease that enough love will not heal. No door that enough love will not open. No gulf that enough love will not bridge. No wall that enough love will not throwdown. No sin that enough love will not redeem.... If only one could love enough you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world.

Emmett Fox

One more:

....and if you go, furious angels will bring you back to me.

(If you don't balk at quoting Rob Dugan on a wedding announcement.)

From my favorite author, Mark Helprin:

"Even if we are insane, we keep on coming closer together."

- Freddy and Fredericka

"There is nothing more beautiful than a promise right after it is made."

- Memoir from Antproof Case

And a wonderful vow from the book of Ruth that I once heard a couple exchange at a wedding --

Where you go, I will go...
Where you live, I will live...
Your people will be my people...
Your God will be my God.

Don't know if any of this will be useful on a wedding program, but I have to add my two favorite love poems:

I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;
Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one:
The shapes a bright container can contain!
Of her choice virtues only gods should speak,
Or English poets who grew up on Greek
(I'd have them sing in chorus, cheek to cheek.)

How well her wishes went! She stroked my chin,
She taught me Turn, and Counter-turn, and stand;
She taught me Touch, that undulant white skin:
I nibbled meekly from her proffered hand;
She was the sickle; I, poor I, the rake,
Coming behind her for her pretty sake
(But what prodigious mowing did we make.)

Love likes a gander, and adores a goose:
Her full lips pursed, the errant note to seize;
She played it quick, she played it light and loose;
My eyes, they dazzled at her flowing knees;
Her several parts could keep a pure repose,
Or one hip quiver with a mobile nose
(She moved in circles, and those circles moved.)

Let seed be grass, and grass turn into hay:
I'm martyr to a motion not my own;
What's freedom for? To know eternity.
I swear she cast a shadow white as stone.
But who would count eternity in days?
These old bones live to learn her wanton ways:
(I measure time by how a body sways.)

--Theodore Roethke

Butterflies are white and blue
In this field we wander through.
Suffer me to take your hand.
Death comes in a day or two.
All the things we ever knew
Will be ashes in that hour,
Mark the transient butterfly,
How he hangs upon the flower.

Suffer me to take your hand.
Suffer me to cherish you
Till the dawn is in the sky.
Whether I be false or true,
Death comes in a day or two.

--Edna St. Vincent Millay

...um, maybe if it were really edgy?

OK, other love favorites:

"When I said I'd take you, I meant as is." - Ani DiFranco

"I believe in love. Not just getting it, but giving it. I think that if you're able to love someone, even if they don't know it, even if they can't love you back, then it's worth it." -- Dorothy in Gosford Park

"Love, I love beyond breath, beyond reason, beyond Love's own power of loving!" -- Edmund Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac Damn, but I love Cyrano.

Oooh, Heqit, you stole my ani. But I'd start with the verse:

"when I look around, I think this, this is good enough,
and I try to laugh, at whatever life brings.
Cuz when I look down, I just miss all the good stuff.
When I look up, I just trip over things.

And I've got, no illusions about you
guess what, I never did
when I said, when I said I'd take it
I meant, as is.

Also, try Johnny Cash. More romantic than you think:

If I were a carpenter, and you were a lady,
would you marry me anyway, would you have my baby?

I have a garden of
my own,
Shining with flowers of
every hue.
I loved it dearly while
alone,
But I shall love it more
with you.

Thomas Moore

or

What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

Nietzsche, I think.

Politicians are swine. You cannot reason with swine. You must hit them on the nose with a stick.
- Bertolt Brecht
Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.
- James Baldwin
When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
- R. Buckminster Fuller

And the entire lyrics from Tom Waits' "Ruby's Arms"

thank you for making my day. what a fantastic diversion...

And while I'm thinking about it,

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds and the pessimist fears that this is true.
-- James Branch Cabell

You think it's the one thing, but it's the other.

-Marlo from 'The Wire'

Oh! And of course, Ryan Adams:

I'd have held your mother's hand on the day you was born.
-"How Do You Keep Love Alive?"

I just don't have the patience to read through all of the responses. So if these have already been posted, forgive me:

e.e.cummings:
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Khalil Gibran, "Marriage":
Then Almitra spoke again and said, "And what of Marriage, master?"
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

For a little wit, Shakespeare's Sonnet 130:
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

Sanskrit proverb
Look to this day,
For it is life,
The very life of life,
In its brief course lies all
The realities and verities of existence,
The bliss of growth,
The splendor of action,
The glory of power.
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today well lived,
Makes every yesterday
A dream of happiness
And every tomorrow
A vision of hope.
Look well, therefore,
To this day.

Apache Wedding Blessing
Now you will feel no rain,
for each of you will be shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
for each of you will be warmth for the other.

Now there is no more loneliness.

Now you are two persons,
but there is only one life before you.

May your days together be good and long
upon the earth.

Random others:
"Where there is love there is life." ~ Gandhi

"Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up." ~ James Baldwin

"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. Tolkein

"My true-love hath my heart, and I have his,
By just exchange, one for the other given:
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss,
There never was a better bargain driven." ~ Sir Phillip Sidney, Song from Arcadia

A good quotation website is www.QuoteLand.com

Good luck!

How am I not myself? - I Heart Huckabees

So I know I'm REALLY late to join in, but I just came across this quote last night and thought it had potential to sound pretty nice on a wedding invitation:

"Love is finding that the things you like best about yourself are not in you at all, but in the person who completes you." - in Sarah by Orson Scott Card

"Talking about love is like dancing about architecture." Joan in Playing by Heart

And I LOVES me some some cummings...

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Pussy: no sooner does a boy come out of it than he spends the rest of his life trying to get back in.

-- Unknown

I love this comment diversion.

From Eternal Sunshine:

Clementine: This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon.
Joel: I know.
Clementine: What do we do?
Joel: Enjoy it.

"Don't compromise yourself. You're all you've got."- Janis Joplin

As for movie quotes:
"Get bent, taxman."

I love it so much it's my screename.

Regarding the Apache Wedding Blessing/Native American Blessing that starts "Now you shall feel no rain...": It's not real. It's actually from a movie script written for a cowboys and indians flick in the 1950's. I was devastated when I heard to. But please stop sending it to people! I feel bad for those who are using it at their weddings!

"I'm the one that has to die when it's time for me to die.....so let me live my life the way I want to."

Jimi Hendrix.
There are entire schools of philosophy that don't contain as much ultimate wisdom as that tidy little lyric.

"I race cars, play tennis and fondle women.
But I have weekends off, and I'm my own boss."

-- Arthur Bach

"The rose goes in the front, big guy."

Of course, any of a myriad of lines from Network also qualify, but I'm really sentimental about that line from Bull Durham.