You stay faithful to your mate wen dating or relationship (1) when there is trust (2) when there is love (3) when dere is understanding

Well everyone has very strong ideas about what makes a person cheat.

.... But what makes you stay faithful to your mate, through the times that you find them "unlikeable"... through the times when you arent feeling "magic" in the relationship etc

If you've never succeeded at being faithful before, maybe you can refer to the people you know who have

character and integrity,, strong conscience to do what I say I will do and a strong value of treating others as I expect to be treated

plus, my memory sucks too much to be a liar, which all cheaters are by definiton

In my mind its simple lol. Good old fashioned love... when u whole heartly love someone u would never hurt them and if you do then move on and still find your love cause they clearly wasnt

Reciprocal love, and because it's not the right thing to do. Doesn't compute with my norms & values when I love someone and know he loves me.
He does have to keep me happy between the sheets, or it will become more tempting, but even then it will take a helluva lot to get me to cheat.
I think I'd sooner end the relationship than cheat. Might not be the easy road, but at least it's honest and fair.

Do you care to elaborate Simplycomplicated?

Oh Peggy its getting complicated now :-)
We all play a part in creating our experience in this world
If I cheat on someone, I have given them reason not to trust me.
So that is going to dilute the sense of trust in the relationship.
As I value trust both in the giving and the receiving. I would have therefore betrayed and devalued my relationship not only with my partner but with myself as well.

Interesting way of looking at it :)

Sounds like you are adhering to a hybrid between the golden rule and the laws of karma

or simply predicting consequences.
a skill us humans aren't real good at

Time Lots and Lots of Quality time. ur never too old to go on a date to a bowling alley

Ok I agree with

It comes down to a few simple reasons to keep it faithful. I've been on both sides of the fence, and figured it out. We all make mistakes.
In a relationship, that is one mistake that will sink your ship forever.
First is keep thinking, what is that attracted you to that person in the first place? Keeping that in the back of your head will keep the fire alive.
Second, don't get caught up in the mundane ways of life, You need to keep that spark. Once you get wet, spark is gone forever.
Third, commitment. Without commitment, the first 2 above is meaningless. When you see both yourselves just doing the daily routine, you really need to spark it up a bit. Go do the things you used to love doing together but stopped doing. Once that happens, the fire gets hotter again if you know what I mean and you both once again into each other physically and emotionally.
You both have to work at it. If one of you crosses that bridge.
"Like a crumpled photograph of memory, it can never be perfect again" (excerpt) Keep that in the back of your head and hope your partner does too, work at it, he/she sees you trying to keep it alive, it will never be a one sided struggle.

You hit the nail on the head. For myself personally my higher principle is my faith. People need to have some kind of faith in their life. Build upon what you have. Then when the time comes for troubles like you mentioned, a solid foundation in a relationship, a little faith and lots of friends.
There will always be those weak people in our lives. But usually the weak find the weaker so they feel stronger. Only the strong survive the turmoils of life. In order to survive the strongest storms, you must have a solid anchor. Without that, we all just float away.

Couldnt have said it better myself