love, trust, sex, commitment, respect.

Duct tape.

No idea. I kept my last one going for 12 years by being a doormat and workhorse. Not doing that again.

Time apart.

Nothing. Speaking from experience.

Here is my favorite riddle.

“How do you keep the one you love?”

No Googling/Cheating.

I am waiting to see your thoughts @silvereyes

Complete honesty and mutual respect for each other.

I'm guessing that you already have that solid foundation that Victoria is talking about. For me, my experience was, you have to keep things spicy in the bedroom. Keep things excited,
have sex every day. Not just boring sex. Ever heard of the 30 month challenge ?
We were raising 5 kids at one time. Both of us had careers. My husband never complained.
There are ways in keeping things together. Kids go to sleep at night. You have to keep things creative.
I can't say anything else XXX. LoL

I'm confused. Is this an individual in a ltr asking a bunch of mostly singles? just checking.

You asked two questions. What makes a relationship last and what makes them strong long-term? Long lasting relationships happen for many reasons, children, fear of being alone, financial reasons, fear of starting over, and some I'm sure I can't think of. I believe strong long-term relationships are based on being best friends.

The high cost of divorce

Hmmmmm, for me, unpredictability. I hate structure, loath it in fact. A poem explains my lifestyle, it's called dust if you must.

Dust if you must but wouldn't it be better
To paint a picture or write a letter.
Bake a cake or plant a seed;
Ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must but theres not much time,
With rivers to swim and mountains to climb;
Music to hear, books to read;
Friends to cherish and life to lead.

Dust if you must but the world's out there
With the sun in your eyes and the wind in your hair;
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain,
This day will not come around again.

Dust if you must, but bear in mind,
Old age will come and it's not kind.
And when you go (and go you must)
You, yourself, will make more dust.

Life's to short to script your day, eat your tea in the same place at the same time, nothing grinds me down more.

Quite simply, what makes them last is the couple who makes them their first priority. It is important to have great communication in similar styles, matching desires where that works and complementary desries where that works.

Mutual respect, passion and an open mind. I'm still learning these things myself.

Love and work.

Compromise.

I wish I knew but from my understanding it's many things.

Time and separation...I am going out with so many people, but if they knew it, I think the relationship would stop. Nothing creepy about that....hehe

Man, I wish I friggin knew. I thought the answer was committing yourself to your partner's happiness, but that backfired really fast on me.

Fear of being alone?

Sheer bloody mindedness... Nah... My opinion is that, essentially, we have all been taught to be, but we all have individual, unique, equally valid perspectives of the universe that we share. We are faced with an a paradigm of what a sociologically acceptable relationship should be, so when we actually try to enter a relationship, we are inherently seeking a relationship style that we have witnessed within our own individual life experience. So, if you grew up, in say, a hippie commune, then the relationship paradigm that you are seeking, will be the one that lead to the most experience... and it doesn't necessarily have to be a positive one. I/e toxic relationships are just as hereditary as loving ones... Long story short, I think that the key to a successful long term relationship is happiness. If both partners share similar life experiences for a period of time, so that they share diffeting perspectives of same experiences, and are happy together, the relationship will last... Oh, and fun. Gotta have fun together... Jet skis are fun 😀

passion compromise and effort

Within the context of a romantic relationship, friendship.

Sex sex and more sex

The cynic in me wants to say stagnation. I've know several couples who stay together because they can't imagine something different for themselves. Even though there's a preponderance of evidence pointing to the fact that one or both aren't happy. I think recognizing that the meat of the matter is in the struggle and intentionally celebrating and behaving gratefully for the moments of happiness is a good start.