“To love well is the task in all meaningful relationships, not just romantic bonds.”

“Giving generously in romantic relationships, and in all other bonds, means recognizing when the other person needs our attention. Attention is an important resource.”

“There is as much wisdom in listening as there is in speaking - and that goes for all relationships, not just romantic ones.”

“People and families and cultures and religions and government organizations and educational sources and forms of entertainment have all been indoctrinating you with the false idea that marriage is the most important relationship you will have. And that the romantic pair bond is the only relationship in which your needs can be met.”

“Every relationship is transactional, whether it is a business relationship, a romantic relationship, a political relationship, a friendship, or a familial relationship.”

“When we live in a society where people genuinely feel that what matters most is the romantic partnership, we have learned that other people will value and prioritize a romantic partner above all other relationships. Therefore, you are only genuinely secure and only have leverage for getting your needs met in a relationship, if you are that person’s romantic partner.”

“You want a happy romantic relationship? Don’t ruin it by getting married.”

“Communication is an essential factor in any type of relationship; friend, romantic, or business.”

“This thing between them, this bond—it wasn’t just passion,
and it wasn’t wicked.
It was love, and it was divine.”

“You spend too much time alone, too much time watching television, and too little time cultivating the inner man. You live in a squalid little flat in what is referred to as a no-go zone from which your friends, of whom you see less and less, have all fled for the suburbs long ago with wives and sprogs in tow. You are exceedingly unlucky in love, having invested years in a romantic relationship which, as you know only too well, is neither romantic nor much of a relationship. In short, you have all the social prospects of a garden gnome.”