Speeches and Toastes

— Here's to the two of us —

May we be forever patient,
eternally happy, and always in love.

— Introduction —

The custom of drinking a "toast" to the
prosperity, happiness, luck, or good health
of another dates back to antiquity.

It is impossible to point to the moment
when the first crude vessel was raised in
honor of an ancient god, but what we do
know is that the custom of drinking to
health permeated the ancient world and
that over time the simple act of toasting another
became embellished and intertwined with other
customs. At some point along the way, toasts
were created to celebrate success, happiness,
and all other emotions or events worth
honoring. Sometime after the seventeenth
century, the gesture of clinking glasses became
popular. One legendary explanation of such
glass clinking is that all five senses should come
into play to get the greatest pleasure from a
drink. It is tasted, touched, seen, smelled,
and-with the clink-heard.

— Marriage —

What is thine is mine, and all mine is thine.
Plautus

My most brilliant achievement was my ability
to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.
Winston Churchill

God, the best maker of all marriages, combine
your hearts in one.
William Shakespeare

Friendship is the marriage of the soul.
Voltaire

Marriage is the alliance of two people, one of
whom never remembers birthdays and the
other who never forgets.
Ogden Nash

Happy marriages begin when we marry the
one we love, and they blossom when we love
the one we married.
Sam Levenson

A perfect marriage could only happen
between a blind wife and a deaf husband.

Albert Einstein was asked on his 50th wedding
anniversary, "To what do you attribute the success
of your marriage?" Professor Einstein offered this
profound response: "When we first got married, we
made a pact. It was this: In our life together, it was
decided I would make all of the big decisions and
my wife would make all of the little decisions. For
fifty years we have held true to that agreement. I
believe that is the reason for the success in our
marriage. However, the strange thing is that in fifty
years, there hasn't been one big decision."

For loves who keep on keeping on
with their love there is never an end
to the glories of marriage.

Never forget that those who bring happiness to the
lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
Maurice Maeterlinck

Your success and happiness lie in you.
Helen Keller

Memories of a 90-year-old grandmother of the three
most important phrases her husband ever said to her,
"I love you," "you are so beautiful," and "please forgive
me."

Marriage is not so much finding the right person as it is
being the right person.
Marriage is three parts love and seven parts forgiveness.
Langdon Mitchell

Marriage is that relation between man and woman in which
the independence is equal, the dependence mutual, and the
obligation reciprocal.
Louis Kaufman Anspacher

A marriage between mature people is not an escape but a
commitment shared by two people that becomes part of their
commitment to themselves and society.
Betty Friedan

— Kindness —

I would like to have engraved inside every wedding
band, "Be kind to one another." This is the Golden
Rule of marriage and the secret of making love last
through the years.
Randolph Ray

— Love —

Our love is the greatest
gift we can give one another.

Love is not a matter of counting the years; it is making
the years count.
William Smith

Treasure the love you receive above all. It will survive
long after your gold and good health have vanished.
Og Mlandino

No one acts more foolishly that a wise man in love.
The Toastmaster's Treasure Chest

You can see them alongside the shuffle-board
courts in Florida or on the porches of the old folks' homes
up north; an old man with snow-white hair, a little hard of
hearing, reading the newspaper through a magnifying glass;
an old woman in a shapeless dress, her knuckles gnarled by
arthritis, wearing sandals to ease her aching arches. They
are holding hands . . . They are in love, they have always
been in love, although sometimes they would have denied
it. And because they have been in love they have survived
everything that life could throw at them, even their own
failures.
Ernest Havemann

The sweetest love is unconditional.

— A Syrian Legend —

Three men stood, one stormy night, at the threshold of a wayside cottage. Their knock at the door was answered by a child who asked their names and the purpose of their visit.

One of the two spoke saying: "My name is Love. My companions are Luck and Riches. We are seeking places for rest and refreshment. One of us would be pleased to receive the hospitality of this home tonight, and the choice of who it is to be we leave with you." The girl was bewildered; she ran and called the other members of the family, who gathered quickly to decide which of the three distinguished callers they would receive.

They repeated over and over again the names of their three would-be guests, studied their characters, and listened again to the request that was made.

Wisdom ruled the family's decision, and the choice was soon made. In unison they exclaimed: "We will entertain Love!"

But the family was perplexed to find that Luck and Riches accompanied the invited Love to the preferred room. Observing their astonishment, Love turned to the kind hosts and said, with a divine smile: "Be not alarmed. Wherever I am made welcome, there my companions also will make their home."

And that home, so say the Syrians whose legend this is, was blessed forever more.

Love gives us in a moment what we can hardly attain by effort after
years of toil.
Goethe

— Passion —

May your fire never go out!

— Wedding Toasts —

To the bridal couple from friends -

A health to you,
A wealth to you,
And the best that life can give to you.
May fortune still be kind to you.
And happiness be true to you,
And life be long and good to you,
Is the toast of all your friends to you.

Nothing is worth more than this day.
Goethe

I have found the best way to give advice to my children
is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
Harry S. Truman

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress;
working together is success.
Henry Ford

May you always share your love and laughter.

Let us celebrate this occasion with wine and sweet words.
Latin Proverb

The greatest obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness.
Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

A wedding wish-
May you never forget
what is worth remembering
or remember
what is best forgotten.
Irish

May you have the hindsight to know where you've been . . . The foresight
to know where you're going . . . and the insight to know when you've gone
too far!
Charles M. Meyers