Good relationships don’t just happen; they take time, patience and two people who truly want to work to be together.

This saying circulates widely in modern relationship-advice culture, especially in social media posts, greeting-card style compilations, and self-help blogs. It reflects a late-20th/early-21st-century emphasis on “relationship work” (communication skills, patience, mutual effort) rather than romantic destiny or effortless compatibility. Because it is typically shared without attribution and appears in many graphic-quote formats, it is best treated as a contemporary anonymous maxim rather than a traceable literary or historical utterance tied to a specific person, speech, or publication.

The quote argues against the idea that strong partnerships are accidental or purely a matter of finding the “right” person. It frames relationship quality as the product of sustained investment—time to build trust, patience to endure conflict and change, and, crucially, reciprocal commitment. The final clause (“two people who truly want to work to be together”) stresses mutuality: effort from only one partner cannot substitute for shared intention. As a piece of advice, it valorizes perseverance and collaboration, implying that love is less a feeling that happens to you than a practice you choose and maintain.