Mignon McLaughlin

"When children are bored, it reflects on us all."

"The fault no child ever loses is the one he was most punished for."

"Irrelevant things may happen to you, but once they have happened they all become relevant."

"In retrospect, our triumphs could as easily have happened to someone else; but our defeats are uniquely our own."

"We tell our children things which we know are not so, but which we wish were so."

"The family unit is man's noblest device for being bored."

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

"Learning too soon our limitations, we never learn our powers."

"If you have to do it every day, for God’s sake learn to do it well."

"Anything you do from the heart enriches you, but sometimes not till years later."

"A childhood can be judged sheltered or not according to which was learned first, the four-letter word or the euphemism."

"There are children born to be children, and others who must mark time till they can take their natural places as adults."

"If you had an unhappy childhood, you will always want to sleep late in the morning."

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

"If he suddenly falls in love with someone else, a husband may not start wanting a divorce; but if he suddenly makes a lot of money, he usually will."

"The total history of almost anyone would shock almost everyone."

"Many are saved from sin by being so inept at it."

"It's innocence when it charms us, ignorance when it doesn't."

"We welcome passion, for the mind is briefly let off duty."

"The time to begin most things is ten years ago."

"True remorse is never just a regret over consequence; it is a regret over motive."

"Most of us can easily do two things at once; what’s all but impossible is to do one thing at once."

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

"A sense of humor is a major defense against minor troubles."

"Courage can't see around corners but goes around them anyway."

"The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next."

"It does not undo harm to acknowledge that we have done it; but it undoes us not to acknowledge it."

"Anything you lose automatically doubles in value."

"What you can't get out of, get into whole-heartedly."

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

"Nostalgia for what we have lost is more bearable than nostalgia for what we have never had, for the first involves knowledge and pleasure, the second only ignorance and pain."

"We all dream of being the darling of everybody's darling."

"Beauty often fades, but seldom so swiftly as the joy it gives us."

"Groups of girls are pretty, or not; they are seldom mixed."

"If you're a gifted flirt, talking about the price of eggs will do as well as any other subject."

"Boredom is often the cause of promiscuity and always its result."

"On stage and off, we care what happens to a beautiful woman, whether she can act well or not."

"I'm afraid to win, and afraid to lose; I hate a draw and can't stop competing; otherwise I'm fine."

"The real is very real to him, the unreal even more so."

"A hypochondriac is one who has a pill for everything except what ails him."

"My thoughts, I guess, are bitter; who but the bitter have thoughts?"

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

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

"It's impossible to be loyal to your family, your friends, your country, and your principles, all at the same time."

"The know-nothings are, unfortunately, seldom the do-nothings."

"Spring, summer, and fall fill us with hope; winter alone reminds us of the human condition."

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

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

"We all become great explorers during our first few days in a new city, or a new love affair."

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