15 Mignon McLaughlin Quotes
Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) was an American journalist and author. She wrote for several major women's magazines including Redbook, Vogue, and Cosmopolitan. She later became the managing editor at Glamour magazine. She even co-wrote a short-lived Broadway play titled Gayden with her husband.
During the 1950s she began writing aphorisms. They were collected in a series of three books - The Neurotic’s Notebook, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, and The Complete Neurotic’s Notebook. These were combined in a book long after her death titled Apercus: The Aphorisms of Mignon McLaughlin.
Following are some of her most inspiring aphorisms. The power of many of them comes from their ability to stick the knife of truth right through you, enabling you to see with new eyes.
Society honors its living conformists and its dead troublemakers.
The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next.
Don't be yourself — be someone a little nicer.
Learning too soon our limitations, we never learn our powers.
A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.
Failure can get to be a rather comfortable old friend.
Hate leaves ugly scars, love leaves beautiful ones.
The best work is done with the heart breaking, or overflowing.
The head never rules the heart, but just becomes its partner in crime.
Courage can't see around corners, but goes around them anyway.
Our strength is often composed of the weakness we're damned if we're going to show.
Character is what emerges from all the little things you were too busy to do yesterday, but did anyway.
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.
Life marks us all down, so it's just as well that we start out by overpricing ourselves.
A sense of humor is a major defense against minor troubles.