Mignon McLaughlin: Use

“Most of us would rather risk catastrophe than read the directions.”

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Reading

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

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

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

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Hope , Spring , Winter , Summer

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

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Love

Love

“What you have become is the price you paid to get what you used to want.”

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

“If an article is attractive, or useful, or inexpensive, they'll stop making it tomorrow; if it's all three, they stopped making it yesterday.”

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

“We are all such a waste of our potential, like three-way lamps using one-way bulbs.”

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Way

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

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Life

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

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

“Most of us become parents long before we have stopped being children.”

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

For Parents , Children , Parent

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

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Beauty , Joy

“In church, sacred music would make believers of us all—but preachers can be counted on to restore the balance.”

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Music

“"Your money or your life." We know what to do when a burglar makes this demand of us, but not when God does.”

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Life , Money , God

“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.”

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

“We hear only half of what is said to us, understand only half of that, believe only half of that, and remember only half of that.”

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Understanding

“The fear of being laughed at makes cowards of us all.”

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Fear

“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

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Theater

Life , Feeling , Parting

“We are all born brave, trusting and greedy, and most of us manage to remain greedy.”

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

“People who won't have a TV set in their house get more pleasure from their refusal than most of us get from TV.”

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

People , Pleasure , Housing

“When children are bored, it reflects on us all.”

Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Children