Returning to Middlemarch by way of Piccadilly

Marriage, which has been the bourne of many narratives, is still a great beginning, as it was so to Adam and Eve, who kept their honeymoon in Eden, but had their first little one among the thorns and thistles of the wilderness.  It is still the beginning of the home epic - the gradual conquest or irremediable loss of that complete union which makes the advancing years a climax, and age the harvest of sweet memories in common.

Some set out like Crusaders of old, with a glorious equipment of hope and enthusiasm, and get broken by the way, wanting patience with each other and the world.

Finale- from Middlemarch- George Eliot.

Chapter 7
Piacer e popone
Vuol la sua stagione.
Pleasure and melons / Want the same weather. (Italian Proverb)

Chapter 22
'Une Bonne Fotune'
We talked for a long time, she was simple and kind.
Knowing no evil, she did only good;
She gave me alms from the riches of her heart,
Scarely daring to think, I gave her mine;
Thus she carried off my life, and never even knew it.
Alfred de Musset (1834)

Chapter 44
I would not creep along the coast, but steer
Out in mid-sea, by guidance of the stars.

Chapter 46
Pues no podemas haber aquello que queremos, queramos aquello que podremos.*
Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get.  Spanish Proverb

The final words
Her finely-touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible.  Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth.  But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffuse: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

* My Spanish speaking colleague tells me that the Spanish doesn't make sense.  She says 'Como no podemos obtener lo que nos gusta, déjenos que nos guste lo que podemos obtener' is much better (from googletranslate)