The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality

by tearing down all boundaries;

on the contrary, a good marriage is one 

in which each partner appoints the other

to be the guardian of his solitude,

and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust.

A merging of two people is an impossibility,

and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in,

a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties

of their fullest freedom and development.

But once the realization is accepted 

that even between the closest people infinite solitude exists,

a marvelous living side by side can grow up for them,

if they succeed in loving the expanse between them,

which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other 

as a whole and before an immense sky.

-Rainer Maria Rilke