Phyllis McGinley Quotes

Words can sting like anything, but silence breaks the heart.

When blithe to argument I come, Though armed with facts, and merry, May Providence protect me from The fool as adversary, Whose mind to him a kingdom is Where reason lacks dominion, Who calls conviction prejudice And prejudice opinion.

Those wearing tolerance for a label call other views intolerable.

Sisters are always drying their hair. Locked into rooms, alone, they pose at the mirror, shoulders bare, trying this way and that their hair, or fly importunate down the stair to answer the telephone.

Seventy is wormwood, Seventy is gall But its better to be seventy, Than not alive at all.

Praise is warming and desirable. But it is an earned thing. It has to be deserved, like a hug from a child.

Please to put a nickel, please to put a dime. How petitions trickle in at Christmas time!

Nothing fails like success; nothing is so defeated as yesterday’s triumphant Cause.

Marriage was all a woman’s idea and for man’s acceptance of the pretty yoke, it becomes us to be grateful.

In Australia, not reading poetry is the national pastime.

Gossip isn’t scandal and it’s not merely malicious. It’s chatter about the human race by lovers of the same.

Getting along with men isn’t what’s truly important. The vital knowledge is how to get along with a man, one man.

A hobby a day keeps the doldrums away.