You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent.

You pay a certain penalty for going your own way. A lot of people think you’re nuts, and you’re not as popular with girls as you should be.

The relationship to one’s fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the relationship of striving; it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one’s striving.

All of the people in my life whom I consider to be close friends or colleagues are good thinkers.

It is most unwise for people in love to marry.

Do not rebuke mockers, or they will hate you; rebuke the wise, and they will love you.

I was extremely lucky that I had two great wives. It sounds a bit funny to say that, but it’s absolutely true.

The question of sexual dominance can exist only in the nightmare of that soul which has armed itself, totally, against the possibility of the changing motion of conquest and surrender, which is love.

I think that it’s okay to be mad at someone who hurt you. This isn’t about, like, the pageantry of trying to seem like nothing affects you.

The closest I ever came to getting married was just before I started singing. In fact, my first record saved my neck.

Relationships based on obligation lack dignity.

‚Tis strange what a man may do, and a woman yet think him an angel.

I rely on other people every day of my life.

By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.

I don’t have time to be lonely. And I get fearful of relationships because I feel guilty about wanting someone to be completely faithful and loyal, when I can’t even give them 10 percent of the attention that they need. It’s just the reality of my time, my life, my schedule.

Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you’re a human being, you feel, you suffer. You’re gay, you’re sick, you’re nervous or whatever.

Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.

The greatest pleasures are only narrowly separated from disgust.

There is a rollicking kindness that looks like malice.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.

Never envy a man his lady. Behind it all lays a living hell.

If someone lies, well, you had a choice to trust that person or not. I think the way my father raised me, well, he trusted everybody. And that worked for him.

A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies.

Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.

Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence.

We all have two lives: an inner life and an outer life. Your inner life is your soul life, which includes your mind, will and emotions. Your outer life is your physical life. And while God cares about every detail of your life, He is more concerned with your inner life than your outer life.

I think what it really is, is that I date creative people. And I think that what intimidates them is not my purse; it’s my mind.

What the heck is true love? I remember feeling, back when I was 12 and ‚going‘ with this girl, ‚Is this true love?‘

Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.

Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.

Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.

Country radio is much more like a family than any other group of people that I’ve met.

I cry so much less than I used to. I used to be one of the most teary people.

People say that about me, that I apparently buy houses near every boy I like – that’s a thing that I apparently do. If I like you I will apparently buy up the real-estate market just to freak you out so you leave me.

Genres aren’t closed boxes. Stuff flows back and forth across the borders all the time.

My family is very good about visiting me, and other friends as well.

Every single one of us has a few months here or there that feel like dark months.

Be polite to all, but intimate with few.

Our affections as well as our bodies are in perpetual flux.

Those who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give.

I don’t have a type. I don’t have a specific kind of human being. It’s just kind of an X-factor of sorts. Everybody I’ve ever dated has been a case-by-case situation.

Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.

There must be something solemn, serious, and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious. If glad, it must not grin or snicker; if sad, it must not scream or curse.

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

May we so love as never to have occasion to repent of our love!

Kisses are a better fate than wisdom.

A strong man doesn’t have to be dominant toward a woman. He doesn’t match his strength against a woman weak with love for him. He matches it against the world.

Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable.

I have noticed… that men usually leave married women alone and are inclined to treat all wives with respect. This is no great credit to married women.

When I found somebody who I fell in love with, it made me feel different than I felt the rest of the day. It was electrifying. That’s what inspired the ‚Off to the Races‘ melodies. That’s one of the times when you’re feeling electrified by someone else and they make you happy to be alive.

There’s a big difference between falling in love with someone and falling in love with someone and getting married. Usually, after you get married, you fall in love with the person even more.

Different taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.

I make decisions all day, so it’s nice for a woman like me to go to dinner and have the man take the menu and say, ‚Let me order.‘ Other women would be offended by that, but I’m like, ‚Good. Because I can’t make one more decision today.‘ I want someone to rub my feet without being asked.

Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins, a series of grotesque caricatures of himself.

I approach love differently now that I know it’s hard for it to work out.

To wear your heart on your sleeve isn’t a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.

The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?

Remember that creating a successful marriage is like farming: you have to start over again every morning.

There is no such thing as a lovers‘ oath.