Mignon McLaughlin Quotes & Sayings

People are like birds: on the wing, all beautiful; up close, all beady little eyes. — Mignon McLaughlin

If I knew why I worried so much, I wouldn't worry. — Mignon McLaughlin

We can never understand other people's motives, nor their furniture. — Mignon McLaughlin

A productive marriage requires falling in enjoy numerous occasions, usually with the identical man or woman. — Mignon McLaughlin

Nostalgia for what we have lost is more bearable than nostalgia for what we have never had — Mignon McLaughlin

We are never more self-righteous than when giving up what we should have shunned all along. — Mignon McLaughlin

Forget about calories - everything makes thin people thinner, and fat people fatter. — Mignon McLaughlin

At night, neurotics may toil not, but oh how they spin! — Mignon McLaughlin

We catch frightful glimpses of ourselves in the hostile eyes of others. — Mignon McLaughlin

When women feel they have learned to forgive their mothers - and men, their fathers - all it usually means is that they've decided to allow themselves the same kind of behavior. — Mignon McLaughlin

The neurotic thinks himself both Hamlet and Claudius, in a world that belongs to Polonius. — Mignon McLaughlin

The trouble with women is men; the trouble with men, men. — Mignon McLaughlin

Few of us could bear to have ourselves for neighbors. — Mignon McLaughlin

There's nothing wrong with most men's egos that the kowtowing of a headwaiter can't cure. — Mignon McLaughlin

We are keenly aware of the faults of our friends, but if they like us enough it doesn't matter. — Mignon McLaughlin

The fear of being laughed at makes cowards of us all. — Mignon McLaughlin

The total history of almost anyone would shock almost everyone. — Mignon McLaughlin

If the second marriage really succeeds, the first one didn't really fail. — Mignon McLaughlin

The neurotic has perfect vision in one eye, but he cannot remember which. — Mignon McLaughlin

My doctor is nice; every time I see him, I'm ashamed of what I think of doctors in general. — Mignon McLaughlin

We semaphore from ship to ship, but they're sinking, too. — Mignon McLaughlin

It upsets women to be, or not to be, stared at hungrily. — Mignon McLaughlin

There's an awful lot of blood around that water is thicker than. — Mignon McLaughlin

It is important to our friends to believe that we are unreservedly frank with them, and important to friendship that we are not. — Mignon McLaughlin

Failure can get to be a rather comfortable old friend. — Mignon McLaughlin

Some marriages break up, and some do not, and in our world you can usually explain the former better than the latter. — Mignon McLaughlin

It's wonderful to watch a pretty woman with character grow beautiful. — Mignon McLaughlin

A sense of humor is a major defense against minor troubles. — Mignon McLaughlin

Many of us go through life feeling as an actor might feel who does not like his part and does not believe in the play. — Mignon McLaughlin

Humiliation is a vast country of imprecise boundaries. If you think you're there, you are. The neurotic rule: when in doubt, go ahead and feel humiliated. — Mignon McLaughlin

Character is what emerges from all the little things you were too busy to do yesterday, but did anyway. — Mignon McLaughlin

The first two days of a vacation are endless; then it flies. — Mignon McLaughlin

Neurosis is no worse than a bad cold; you ache all over, and it's made you a mess, but you won't die from it. — Mignon McLaughlin

No woman wants to see herself too clearly. — Mignon McLaughlin

We are seldom happy with what we now have, but would go to pieces if we lost any part of it. — Mignon McLaughlin

A parent who has never apologized to his children is a monster. If he's always apologizing, his children are monsters. — Mignon McLaughlin

So long as God reveals Himself, or doesn't, He is behaving like God. — Mignon McLaughlin

When first we fall in love, we feel that we know all there is to know about life, and perhaps we are right. — Mignon McLaughlin

Every American child should grow up knowing a second language, preferably English. — Mignon McLaughlin

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

Most of us become parents long before we have stopped being children. — Mignon McLaughlin

We are irritated by rascals, intolerant of fools, and prepared to love the rest. But where are they? — Mignon McLaughlin

Many of us are equal to life's emergencies who cannot bear its day-after-dayness. — Mignon McLaughlin

The know-nothings are, unfortunately, seldom the do-nothings. — Mignon McLaughlin

I often pray, though I'm not really sure Anyone's listening; and I phrase it carefully, just in case He's literary. — Mignon McLaughlin

Family quarrels have a total bitterness unmatched by others. Yet it sometimes happens that they also have a kind of tang, a pleasantness beneath the unpleasantness, based on the tacit understanding that this is not for keeps; that any limb you climb out on will still be there later for you to climb back. — Mignon McLaughlin

Once you become self-conscious, there is no end to it; once you start to doubt, there is no room for anything else. — Mignon McLaughlin

Neurotics would like to sleep all the time, and to be awakened only when there is good news. — Mignon McLaughlin

Most sermons sound to me like commercials - but I can't make out whether God is the Sponsor or the Product. — Mignon McLaughlin

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

The next voice you hear will undoubtedly be your own. — Mignon McLaughlin

Women who feel naked without their lipstick are well over thirty. — Mignon McLaughlin

God and the devil lose to a common enemy: inertia. — Mignon McLaughlin

It's easy enough to get along with a loved and loving child - at least till you try to get him to do something. — Mignon McLaughlin

If you made a list of reasons why any couple got married, and another list of the reasons for their divorce, you'd have a hell of a lot of overlapping. — Mignon McLaughlin

If there is something you must do and you cannot do it, you cannot do anything else. — Mignon McLaughlin

Neurotics dream of a good life, or a great suicide note. — Mignon McLaughlin

If your children spend most of their time in other people's houses, you're lucky; if they all congregate at your house, you're blessed. — Mignon McLaughlin

One of life's few really reliable pleasures: to have a family you love, and to leave them for a week. — Mignon McLaughlin

Children lack morality, but they also lack fake morality. — Mignon McLaughlin

We are all such a waste of our potential, like three-way lamps using one-way bulbs. — Mignon McLaughlin

People find it hard to be both comic and serious, though life manages it easily enough. — Mignon McLaughlin

Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent. — Mignon McLaughlin

Life marks us all down, so it's just as well that we start out by overpricing ourselves. — Mignon McLaughlin

God doesn't measure His bounty, but oh how we do! — Mignon McLaughlin

A woman asks little of love: only that she be able to feel like a heroine. — Mignon McLaughlin

We waste a lot of time running after people we could have caught by just standing still. — Mignon McLaughlin

Age is a slowing down of everything except fear. — Mignon McLaughlin

We often pray to be better, when in truth we only want to feel better. — Mignon McLaughlin

A hypochondriac is one who has a pill for everything except what ails him. — Mignon McLaughlin

When you let money speak for you, it drowns out anything else you meant to say. — Mignon McLaughlin

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

Many things can make you miserable for weeks; few can bring you a whole day of happiness. — Mignon McLaughlin

Don't look for God where He is needed most; if you didn't bring Him there, He isn't there. — Mignon McLaughlin

Every now and then you run across radiantly attractive people and you're delighted to find they adore you, till you realize that they adore just about everybody- and that's what's made them radiantly attractive. — Mignon McLaughlin

Surrounded by people who love life, you love it too; surrounded by people who don't, you don't. — Mignon McLaughlin

The fault we admit to is seldom the fault we have, but it has a certain relationship to it, a somewhat similar shape, like that of a sleeve to an arm. — Mignon McLaughlin

Neurotics make poor patriots; if you're ashamed of something as big as yourself, it's hard to be proud of something as small as your country. — Mignon McLaughlin

Most of us would rather risk catastrophe than read the directions ... — Mignon McLaughlin

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

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

Men enjoy being thought of as hunters, but are generally too lazy to hunt. Women, on the other hand, love to hunt, but would rather nobody knew it. — Mignon McLaughlin

Vanity, revenge, loneliness, boredom, all apply: lust is one of the least of the reasons for promiscuity. — Mignon McLaughlin

The neurotic doesn't know how to cope with his emotional bills; some he keeps paying over and over, others he never pays at all. — Mignon McLaughlin

If you hate your lot but wouldn't trade it, it's not your lot you hate. — Mignon McLaughlin

We cough because we can't help it, but others do it on purpose. — Mignon McLaughlin

Boredom is often the cause of promiscuity, and always its result. — Mignon McLaughlin

Men feel that women somehow drag them down, and women feel that way about men. It's possible that both are right. — Mignon McLaughlin

One day you are an apprentice, and everybody's pet; the next, you are coldly expected to deliver. There is never sufficient warning that the second day is coming. — Mignon McLaughlin

There are so many things that we wish we had done yesterday, so few that we feel like doing today. — Mignon McLaughlin

As we grow older, our capacity for enjoyment shrinks, but not our appetite for it. — Mignon McLaughlin

Naturally, the neurotic wants you to love him twice as much, for he's going to cut it in half anyway. — Mignon McLaughlin

We wake in the night, to stereophonic silence. — Mignon McLaughlin

After he has had his tantrum, the neurotic expects those around him to feel friendly and relaxed; after all, he does. — Mignon McLaughlin

Neurotics are always looking for something new to overdo. — Mignon McLaughlin

Pity all newlyweds. She cooks something nice for him, and he brings her flowers, and they kiss and think: How easy marriage is. — Mignon McLaughlin

Healthy parakeets have the nervous energy of tennis players. — Mignon McLaughlin

Love unlocks doors and opens windows that weren't even there before. — Mignon McLaughlin

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

Not for nothing does the neurotic suffer - but not for anything very much, either. — Mignon McLaughlin