7 Habits of Happily Married Couples

Saying “I do” is the easy part. Here, inspiring advice and thoughts about what makes a happy couple tick, excerpted from The Marriage Book, edited by (husband and wife, of course) Lisa Grunwald and Stephen Adler.

1. They’re grateful

WINSTON CHURCHILL LETTER TO CLEMENTINE CHURCHILL, 1948
Churchill wrote this on the couple’s fortieth anniversary.

My Beloved,

I send this token, but how little can it express my gratitude to you for making my life & any work I have done possible, and for giving me so much happiness in a world of accident & storm.

Your ever loving and devoted husband W

2. They forgive and forget

OGDEN NASH “A WORD TO HUSBANDS,” 1931
OgdenNash (1902–1971) was not always this economical in his verse, but was frequently this blunt.

To keep your marriage brimming, With love in the loving cup, Whenever you’re wrong, admit it; Whenever you’re right, shut up.

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3. They’re each other’s cheerleader

HENRY NEUMANN MODERN YOUTH AND MARRIAGE, 1928
Henry Neumann (1882–1966) was a leader of the Society for Ethical Culture, a movement founded in 1876 by Felix Adler on the principle that ethics are independent of theology.

Disillusion, of course, enters in time. There are no full-grown perfect beings. Sooner or later the frailties are recognized. But there is in most people a better self which the fallible self hides; and the greatest privilege of the married life is to be the one who assists the other more and more to do justice to that better possibility.

4. They’re realistic

H. L. MENCKEN A BOOK OF BURLESQUES, 1916

Strike an average between what a woman thinks of her husband a month before she marries him and what she thinks of him a year afterward, and you will have the truth about him in a very handy form.

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5. They have complete trust in one another

ELBERT HUBBARD LOVE, LIFE & WORK, 1906

There are six requisites in every happy marriage; the first is Faith and the remaining five are Confidence.

6. They accept each other’s differences

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE TABLE TALK, 1824

You may depend upon it, that a slight contrast of character is very material to happiness in marriage.

Read More: 7 Secrets to Making Your Marriage Work

7. They know marriage is a work in progress

MARK TWAIN NOTEBOOK, 1894
Samuel Clemens had been married twenty-four years when he wrote this in his notebook.

Love seems the swiftest, but is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.

From THE MARRIAGE BOOK edited by Lisa Grunwald and Stephen Adler. Copyright © by Lisa Grunwald and Stephen J. Adler. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

This article originally appeared on RealSimple.com