Sometimes when you’re planning a wedding, you might find yourself thinking, Hey, I could really use a couple of non-cheesy quotes about love right now. Maybe you want to punctuate your ceremony with something meaningful, or you think it would be hilarious to put something cheeky on your cocktail napkins as a conversation starter. No problem, you think to yourself. This is the Internet! Quotes abound! Except, then you hit search and quickly realize you’re going to have to go through seventy-five pages of people misquoting Dr. Seuss to get to the good stuff.
Also in Logistics
Luckily I am a quotes queen. I used to keep notebooks filled with lines from tunes, books, or films jotted down, and I would harbor these perfect lines for months, maybe years, until the perfect opportunity to use them presented itself. Generally speaking, I have a few favorites that I toss around all the time (“YOUR AURA IS PURPLE! PURPLE!” from Almost Famous is a perpetual winner). So when it came time to stockpile quotes about love that are fun and relatable, I had a two bits of advice guidelines given to me: don’t make it too cheesy, and it’s totally okay to over-quote Say Anything. With this in mind, I sought to pair some of my favorite fictional characters with some of my favorite tunes, and also added in a healthy dose of stuff I’m not obsessed with but that you might be. So here we go: fifty quotes from movies and songs that are all about love—the best kind, the worst kind, and the really regular everyday kind that a lot of us live.
What are your favorite non-cheesy (or maybe awesomely cheesy) quotes about love and marriage?
- “Look, in my opinion, the best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you. The right person is still going to think the sun shines out of your ass. That’s the kind of person that’s worth sticking with.” —Juno
- “Good luck finding somebody to put up with your shit for more than, like, six months. Okay? But I accept the whole package, the crazy and the brilliant. Alright? I know you’re not gonna change and I don’t want you to. It’s called accepting you for being you.” —Before Midnight
- “I don’t think you’re an idiot at all. I mean, there are elements of the ridiculous about you. Your mother’s pretty interesting. And you really are an appallingly bad public speaker. And, um… you tend to let whatever’s in your head come out of your mouth without much consideration of the consequences. I realize when I met you at the turkey curry buffet, that I was unforgivably rude, and wearing reindeer jumper that my mother had given me the day before. But the thing is, um… what I’m trying to say, very inarticulately, is that, um… in fact, perhaps despite appearances, I like you, very much.” —Diary of Bridget Jones
- “Loretta, I love you. Not like they told you love is, and I didn’t know this either, but love don’t make things nice, it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren’t here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die. The storybooks are bullshit. Now I want you to come upstairs and get in my bed.” —Moonstruck
- “I just left the mall, I’m getting fly with my baby, yeah
And I can ride with my baby
I be in the kitchen cooking pies with my baby” —Fetty Wap, “Trap Queen“ - “In the darkest night hour,
I’ll search through the crowd.
Your face is all that I see,
I’ll give you everything.
Baby love me lights out.” —Beyonce, “XO“ - “I love that you get cold when it’s seventy-one degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you’re looking at me like I’m nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because 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.”—When Harry Met Sally
- “I got a man to stick it out
And make a home from a rented house
And we’ll collect the moments one by one
I guess that’s how the future’s done.” —Feist, “Mushaboom“ - Iona: “Does he have… strong lips?”
Andie: “How can you tell?”
Iona: “Did you feel it in your knees?”
Andie: “I felt it everywhere.”
Iona: “Strong lips. [laughs] I know I’m old enough to be his mother, but when the Duck laid that kiss on me last night, I swear my thighs just went up in flames! He must practice on melons or something.” —Pretty in Pink - Jesse: “Listen, if somebody gave me the choice right now, of to never see you again or to marry you, alright, I would marry you, alright. And maybe that’s a lot of romantic bullshit, but people have gotten married for a lot less.”
Celine: “Actually, I think I had decided I wanted to sleep with you when we got off the train. But now that we’ve talked so much, I don’t know anymore.”
Celine: “Why do I make everything so complicated?” —Before Sunrise - “She is the only evidence of God I have seen with the exception of the mysterious force that removes one sock from the dryer every time I do my laundry.” —St. Elmo’s Fire
- “You know your voice is kind of nice when your mouth isn’t screwing it up.”
“Yeah and you looks are kind of pretty. When your face isn’t screwing it up.” —The Goonies - “Since the invention of the kiss, there have been only five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind.” —The Princess Bride
- “Now I tell you openly
You have my heart so don’t hurt me
You’re what I couldn’t find
Totally amazing mind
So understanding and so kind
You’re everything to me” —The Cranberries, “Dreams“ - “Every breath that is in your lungs is a tiny little gift to me.” —The White Stripes, “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground“
- “Nobody thinks it will work, do they?”
“No. You just described every great success story.” —Say Anything… - “I could die right now, Clem. I’m just… happy. I’ve never felt that before. I’m just exactly where I want to be.” —Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- “What I really want to do with my life–what I want to do for a living—is I want to be with your daughter. I’m good at it.” —Say Anything…
- “I’ve seen you laugh at nothing at all
I’ve seen you sadly weeping
The sweetest thing I ever saw
Was you asleep and dreaming” —Magnetic Fields, “Asleep and Dreaming“ - “Me? I’m scared of everything. I’m scared of what I saw, I’m scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I’m scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I’m with you.” —Dirty Dancing
- “And you can use my skin to bury secrets in
and I will settle you down
and at my own suggestion I will ask no questions
while I do my thing in the background.” —Fiona Apple, “I Know“ - “I may be a drape, but I love your granddaughter. And if that’s a crime, I’ll stand convicted, Ma’am.” —Cry Baby
- Henry: “Do you really think there is only one perfect mate?”
Leonardo da Vinci: “As a matter of fact, I do.”
Henry: “Well then how you can be certain to find them? And if you do find them, are they really the one for you or do you only think they are? And what happens if the person you’re supposed to be with never appears, or, or she does, but you’re too distracted to notice?”
Leonardo da Vinci: “You learn to pay attention.” —Ever After - “But the you who you are tonight is the same you I was in love with yesterday, the same you I’ll be in love with tomorrow. And I love that you’re fragile and tough, quiet and kick ass. Hell, you’re one of the punkest girls I know, no matter who you listen to or what you wear.” —If I Stay
- “I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things.” —The Fault in Our Stars
- “I hate the way you talk to me, and the way you cut your hair. I hate the way you drive my car. I hate it when you stare. I hate your big dumb combat boots, and the way you read my mind. I hate you so much it makes me sick; it even makes me rhyme. I hate it, I hate the way you’re always right. I hate it when you lie. I hate it when you make me laugh, even worse when you make me cry. I hate it when you’re not around, and the fact that you didn’t call. But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.” —Ten Things I Hate About You
- “That’s why they call them crushes. If they were easy, they’d call ’em something else.” —Sixteen Candles
- “Maybe I didn’t really know you. Maybe you were just a mirage. Maybe the world is full of food and sex and spectacle and we’re all just hurling towards an apocalypse, in which case it’s not your fault. I’m been thinking about all these things and… you’re probably standing there monitoring. And one more thing: about the letter. Nuke it. Flame it. Destroy it. It hurts me to know it’s out there. Later.” —Say Anything…
- Matthew: “Yes, I’m drunk. And you’re beautiful. And tomorrow morning, I’ll be sober but you’ll still be beautiful.” —The Dreamers
- “Let’s pretend we’re eight years old playing hookey
I’ll draw on the wall and you can play UFC rookie
Then we’ll grow up
Take our clothes off
And you remind me that I wanted you to kiss me when we find some time alone
And then we can do anything we want” —Fiona Apple, “Anything We Want“ - “That’s when you know you’ve found somebody special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence.” —Pulp Fiction
- “Whenever I’m alone with you
You make me feel like I am home again
Whenever I’m alone with you
You make me feel like I am whole again” —The Cure, “Lovesong“ - “I’m looking for someone to share in an adventure that I’m arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.” —The Hobbit
- “I wish I had done everything on Earth with you.” —The Great Gatsby (2013)
- “I love you, I knew it the minute I met you. I’m sorry it took so long for me to catch up, I just got stuck.” —Silver Linings Playbook
- “Attachment is forbidden. Possession is forbidden. Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is essential to a Jedi’s life. So you might say, that we are encouraged to love.” —Star Wars
- “So girl, leave your boots by the bed we ain’t leaving this room
Till someone needs medical help or the magnolias bloom
It’s cold in this house and I ain’t going out to chop wood
So cover me up and know you’re enough to use me for good” —Jason Isbell, “Cover Me Up“ - “We need a witness to our lives. There’s a billion people on the planet… I mean, what does any one life mean? But, in a marriage, you’re promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things… all of it, all the time, every day.” —Shall We Dance
- “You can’t just sit there and put everybody’s lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love.” —Perks of Being a Wallflower
- “Do you ever put your arms out and just spin and spin and spin? Well, that’s what love is like. Everything inside of you tells you to stop before you fall, but you just keep going.” —Practical Magic
- “Remember, we’re madly in love, so it’s alright to kiss me anytime you feel like it.” —The Hunger Games
- “‘I’m Clementine… can I borrow a piece of your chicken?’ And then you just took it without waiting for an answer. It was so intimate, like we were already lovers.” —Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- “She said ‘If love
If love
Is a poison cup
Then drink it up
‘Cause a sip
A sip
Or a spoonful won’t do
Won’t do nothing for you
Except mess you up'” —M. Ward, “Poison Cup“ - “The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.” —Almost Famous
- “And when you’re holding me
We make a pair of parentheses
There’s plenty space to encase
Whatever weird way my mind goes
I know I’ll be safe in these arms” —The Blow, “Parentheses“ - Henry: “Then let’s say… God… puts two people on Earth and they are lucky enough to find one another. But one of them gets hit by lightning. Well then what? Is that it? Or, perchance, you meet someone new and marry all over again. Is that the lady you’re supposed to be with or was it the first? And if so, when the two of them were walking side by side were they both the one for you and you just happened to meet the first one first or, was the second one supposed to be first? And is everything just chance or are some things meant to be?” Leonardo da Vinci: “You cannot leave everything to Fate, boy. She’s got a lot to do. Sometimes you must give her a hand.” —Ever After
- “I’m glad I didn’t die before I met you
But now I don’t care I could go anywhere with you
And I’d probably be happy” —Bright Eyes, “First Day Of My Life“ - Conor: “Would you still love me if I couldn’t pay for dinner?” Eleanor: “Maybe.” —The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them
- “We’re lying on the moon
It’s a perfect afternoon
Your shadow follows me all day
Making sure that I’m okay
And we’re a million miles away” —Karen O, “The Moon Song“ - “You died on a Saturday morning. And I had you placed here under our tree. And I had that house of your father’s bulldozed to the ground. Momma always said dyin’ was a part of life. I sure wish it wasn’t. Little Forrest, he’s doing just fine. About to start school again soon. I make his breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. I make sure he combs his hair and brushes his teeth every day. Teaching him how to play ping-pong. He’s really good. We fish a lot. And every night, we read a book. He’s so smart, Jenny. You’d be so proud of him. I am. He, uh, wrote a letter, and he says I can’t read it. I’m not supposed to, so I’ll just leave it here for you. Jenny, I don’t know if Momma was right or if, if it’s Lieutenant Dan. I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it’s both. Maybe both is happening at the same time. I miss you, Jenny. If there’s anything you need, I won’t be far away.” —Forrest Gump
