Mary Schmich Quotes

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

The secret to happiness, at Thanksgiving or any time, is to find pleasure in imperfection.

TV happens. And once it’s happened, it’s gone. When it’s gone, you move on, no tears, no tantrums, no videotape

Linda Tripp has shown that a true friend is an archivist, a biographer.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft

The cell phone has transformed public places into giant phone-a-thons in which callers exist within narcissistic cocoons of private conversations. Like faxes, computer modems and other modern gadgets that have clogged out lives with phony urgency, cell phones represent the 20th Century’s escalation of imaginary need. We didn’t need cell phones until we had them. Clearly, cell phones cause not only a breakdown of courtesy, but the atrophy of basic skills.

On an average day, we allow ourselves the fiction that we own a piece of our workplace. That’s part of what it takes to get the job done. Deeper down, we know it’s all on loan.

Chicago is constantly auditioning for the world, determined that one day, on the streets of Barcelona, in Berlin’s cabarets, in the coffee shops of Istanbul, people will know and love us in our multidimensional glory, dream of us the way they dream of San Francisco and New York.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself. Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Do one thing every day that scares you. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Thanksgiving without tension is like a Thanksgiving without turkey. It can be done, but it is not the norm.

Do not read beauty magazines. They only make you feel ugly.