Marriages are made in heaven.
Meaning: Destined partners find each other through forces beyond human control, suggesting compatibility transcends deliberate planning.
Origin: The belief that matches are ordained by God is old — the Babylonian Talmud already expresses it — and the English saying was well known by the late 16th century. John Lyly's Euphues and His England (1580) gives it a practical twist: "Marriages are made in heaven, though consummated in earth."
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
- French: Les mariages sont écrits dans le ciel (literally: Marriages are written in heaven)
- Spanish: Casamiento y mortaja, del cielo bajan (literally: Marriage and burial shroud come down from heaven)
- Japanese: 縁は異なもの味なもの (En wa ina mono aji na mono) (literally: Marital ties are strange things, and delightful things)
- German: Ehen werden im Himmel geschlossen (literally: Marriages are concluded in heaven)
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