Mignon McLaughlin

Self-confidence grows on trees, in other people's orchards.

— Mignon McLaughlin

Whenever we safely land in a plane, we promise God a little something.

— Mignon McLaughlin

No good neurotic finds it difficult to be both opinionated and indecisive.

— Mignon McLaughlin

Sometimes the pleasure principle gets the best of my better judgment.

— Mignon McLaughlin

I've been hiding from God, and I'm appalled to find how easy it is.

— Mignon McLaughlin

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

— Mignon McLaughlin

The total history of almost anyone would shock almost everyone.

— Mignon McLaughlin

Few of us could bear to have ourselves for neighbors.

— Mignon McLaughlin

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

— Mignon McLaughlin

The fault we admit to is seldom the fault we have, but it has a certain relationship to it, a somewhat similar…

— Mignon McLaughlin

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

— Mignon McLaughlin

Neurotics always feel as though they were going way up or way down, which is odd in people going sideways.

— Mignon McLaughlin

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

— 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…

— Mignon McLaughlin

A car is useless in New York, essential everywhere else. The same with good manners.

— 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

Each day, the American housewife turns toward television as toward a lover. She feels guilty about it, and well she might, for…

— Mignon McLaughlin

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

— Mignon McLaughlin

Every group feels strong once it has found a scapegoat.

— Mignon McLaughlin

The excesses of love soon pass, but its insufficiencies torment us forever.

— Mignon McLaughlin

No woman wants to see herself too clearly.

— Mignon McLaughlin

Neurotics are always looking for something new to overdo.

— Mignon McLaughlin

Mumps, measles, and puppy love are terrible after twenty.

— Mignon McLaughlin

Suburb: a place that isn't city, isn't country, and isn't tolerable.

— Mignon McLaughlin

Age is a slowing down of everything except fear.

— Mignon McLaughlin

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

— Mignon McLaughlin

In youth we are plagued by desire; in later years, by the desire to feel desire.

— Mignon McLaughlin

The soul may sleep and the body still be happy, but only in youth.

— Mignon McLaughlin

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

— Mignon McLaughlin

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

— Mignon McLaughlin

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

— Mignon McLaughlin

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

— Mignon McLaughlin

We climb mountains because they are there, and worship God because He is not.

— Mignon McLaughlin

The young do not need God, and the old cannot find Him.

— Mignon McLaughlin

If you must reread old love letters, better pick a room without mirrors.

— Mignon McLaughlin

Healthy parakeets have the nervous energy of tennis players.

— Mignon McLaughlin

Desire is in men a hunger, in women only an appetite.

— Mignon McLaughlin

Failure can get to be a rather comfortable old friend.

— Mignon McLaughlin

What we forgive too freely doesn't stay forgiven.

— Mignon McLaughlin

Children lack morality, but they also lack fake morality.

— Mignon McLaughlin