Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Every day of our lives we are on the verge of making those slight changes that would make all the difference.
The chief reason for drinking is the desire to behave in a certain way, and to be able to blame it on alcohol.
Throughout our lives, we see in the mirror the same innocent trusting face we have seen there since childhood.
If you see in your children most of your own faults, you have failed as a parent, but succeeded as a neurotic.
We lavish on animals the love we are afraid to show to people. They might not return it; or worse, they might.
It's easy enough to get along with a loved and loving child - at least till you try to get him to do something.
Neurotic: someone who can go from the bottom to the top, and back again, without ever once touching the middle.
In retrospect, our triumphs could as easily have happened to someone else; but our defeats are uniquely our own.
In church, sacred music would make believers of us all — but preachers can be counted on to restore the balance.
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.
Men feel that women somehow drag them down, and women feel that way about men. It's possible that both are right.
Men prefer brief praise, pitched high; women are satisfied with praise in a lower key, just so it goes on and on.
Few novels or plays could exist without at least one troublemaker in the group, and perhaps life couldn't either.
We have a terror of seeming to exert ourselves, lest it be noticed that we exerted ourselves and did not succeed.
It's impossible to be loyal to your family, your friends, your country, and your principles, all at the same time.
Don't fool yourself that important things can be put off till tomorrow; they can be put off forever, or not at all
I wish I'd said it first, and I don't even know who did: The only problems that money can solve are money problems.
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.
I often pray, though I'm not really sure Anyone's listening; and I phrase it carefully, just in case He's literary.
Once you become self-conscious, there is no end to it; once you start to doubt, there is no room for anything else.
The neurotic's strongest fantasy is that he has no fantasies. The real is very real to him, the unreal even more so.
The way the neurotic sees it: bars on his door mean that he's locked in; bars on your door mean that he's locked out.
Some marriages break up, and some do not, and in our world you can usually explain the former better than the latter.
After he has had his tantrum, the neurotic expects those around him to feel friendly and relaxed; after all, he does.
A parent who has never apologized to his children is a monster. If he's always apologizing, his children are monsters.
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.
What a shame that allowances have to stop with the teens: both those that are paid to us and those that are made for us.
There are children born to be children, and others who must mark time till they can take their natural places as adults.
They threaten me with lung cancer, and still I smoke and smoke. If they'd only threaten me with hard work, I might stop.
Albert Einstein when asked what he considered to be the most powerful force in the universe answered: Compound interest!
When the pressures really mount, the neurotic must choose: Shall he have a good cry, or set fire to his neighbor's house?
To talk easily with people, you must firmly believe that either you or they are interesting. And even then it's not easy.
What's for dinner is the only question many husbands ask their wives, and the only one to which they care about the answer.
The woman just ahead of you at the supermarket checkout has all the delectable groceries you didn't even know they carried.
If you jot down every silly thought that pops into your mind, you will soon find out everything you most seriously believe.
No matter how brilliantly an idea is stated, we will not really be moved unless we have already half thought of it ourselves.
The neurotic lies awake at night, composing letters to those he hates. He seldom thinks of dropping a line to those he loves.
The neurotic feels as though trapped in a gas-filled room where at any moment someone, probably himself, will strike a match.
How strange that the young should always think the world is against them - when in fact that is the only time it is for them.
There is always some specific moment when we become aware that our youth is gone; but, years after, we know it was much later.
The death of someone we know always reminds us that we are still alive - perhaps for some purpose which we ought to re-examine.
Pity all newlyweds. She cooks something nice for him, and he brings her flowers, and they kiss and think: How easy marriage is.
Good food, good sex, good digestion, good sleep: to these basic animal pleasures, man has added nothing but the good cigarette.
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.
Youth is not enough. And love is not enough. And success is not enough. And, if we could achieve it, enough would not be enough.
It is important to our friends to believe that we are unreservedly frank with them, and important to friendship that we are not.
The past is rich in lessons from which we would greatly profit except that the present is always so full of Special Circumstances.
We are like people with short-term leases on summer cottages; we can never seem to make our provisions come out even with our stay.
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.
Women are good listeners, but it's a waste of time telling your troubles to a man unless there's something specific you want him to do.