Mignon McLaughlin Quotes

Loneliness, insomnia, and change: the fear of these is even worse than the reality.

The chief reason for drinking is the desire to behave in a certain way, and to be able to blame it on alcohol.

Don't fool yourself that important things can be put off till tomorrow; they can be put off forever, or not at all

Life is a mixed blessing, which we vainly try to unmix.

Tough and funny and a little bit kind: that is as near to perfection as a human being can be.

The woman just ahead of you at the supermarket checkout has all the delectable groceries you didn't even know they carried.

What you can't get out of, get into wholeheartedly.

If I knew what I was so anxious about, I wouldn't be so anxious.

A perfect marriage is one in which "I'm sorry" is said just often enough.

Likely as not, the child you can do the least with will do the most to make you proud.

Every day of our lives we are on the verge of making those slight changes that would make all the difference.

Few of us write great novels; all of us live them.

We always prefer war on our own terms to peace on someone else's.

The time to begin most things is ten years ago.

Acedia is not in every dictionary; just in every heart.

Love requires a willingness to die; marriage, a willingness to live.

What's for dinner is the only question many husbands ask their wives, and the only one to which they care about the answer.

Grasp your opportunities, no matter how poor your health; nothing is worse for your health than boredom.

To smoke or not to smoke: I can make of either a life-work.

Few of us could bear to have ourselves for neighbors.

Despair is anger with no place to go.

Only where children gather is there any real chance of fun.

Those who are brutally honest are seldom so with themselves.

The neurotic is always half-drowning in anxiety, and always being half-rescued.

The best work is done with the heart breaking, or overflowing.

The two main hazards of psychoanalysis: that it might fail, and that if it succeeds, you'll never be able to forgive yourself for all those wasted years.

If it came true, it wasn't much of a dream.

Age is a slowing down of everything except fear.

Men never know how tired they are till their wives sit them down for a nice long talk.

Your children tell you casually years later what it would have killed you with worry to know at the time.

When the pain is great enough, we will let anyone be doctor.

Your children vividly remember every unkind thing you ever did to them, plus a few you really didn't.

A new wound makes all the old ones ache again.

There are now electrical appliances with the main unit so sealed in that it cannot be got at for repair. There have always been human beings like that.

Too much money is as demoralizing as too little, and there's no such thing as exactly enough.

In church, sacred music would make believers of us all — but preachers can be counted on to restore the balance.

No one ever loved anyone the way that person wanted to be loved.

Theatre audiences can't be made to think and cry: at best, they can be made to think and laugh, or to feel and cry.

Make a habit of telling the truth, or make a habit of lying: to decide each case on its own merits is exhausting, and hardly ever worth it.

The past is strapped to our backs. We do not have to see it; we can always feel it.

Neurotics are always looking for something new to overdo.

The fear of being laughed at makes cowards of us all.

In life, as in restaurants, we swallow a lot of indigestible stuff just because it comes with the dinner.

There are whole years for which I hope I'll never be cross-examined, for I could not give an alibi.

Ma-ma does everything for the baby, who responds by saying Da-da first.

There are always a few people you do a lot for, and a few who do a lot for you, but they're not the same people.

I'm always there to tell people that their life is not that bad. I wish it was easy to follow that advice.

With men, as with women, the main struggle is between vanity and comfort; but with men, comfort often wins.

Hot dogs always seem better out than at home; so do French-fried potatoes; so do your children.

When suffering comes, we yearn for some sign from God, forgetting we have just had one.