Phyllis McGinley Quotes

In Australia, not reading poetry is the national pastime.

– Phyllis McGinley

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

– Phyllis McGinley

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

– Phyllis McGinley

A lady is smarter than a gentleman, maybe, she can sew a fine seam, she can have a baby, she can use her intuition instead of her brain, but she can’t fold a paper in a crowded train.

– Phyllis McGinley

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

– Phyllis McGinley

Of one thing I am certain, the body is not the measure of healing, peace is the measure.

– Phyllis McGinley

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

– Phyllis McGinley

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

– Phyllis McGinley

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

– Phyllis McGinley

A hobby a day keeps the doldrums away.

– Phyllis McGinley

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.

– Phyllis McGinley

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

– Phyllis McGinley

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

– Phyllis McGinley

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.

– Phyllis McGinley

Those wearing tolerance for a label call other views intolerable.

– Phyllis McGinley