Quotes by Phyllis McGinley

About Phyllis McGinley:

Phyllis McGinley was a Pulitzer Prize (1961) winning American author of children's books and poetry. Her poetry was in the style of light verse, specializing in humor, satiric tone and the positive aspects of suburban life.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

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

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

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

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

Phyllis McGinley

Those wearing tolerance for a label call other views intolerable.

Phyllis McGinley

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

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

Compromise, if not the spice of life, is its solidity. It is what makes nations great and marriages happy

Phyllis McGinley

A mother's hardest to forgive. Life is the fruit she longs to hand you Ripe on a plate. And while you live, Relentlessly she understands you.

Phyllis McGinley

God know that a mother need fortitude and courage and tolerance and flexibility and patience and firmness and nearly every other brave aspect of the human soul.

Phyllis McGinley

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

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

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

Phyllis McGinley

In Australia, not reading poetry is the national pastime.

Phyllis McGinley

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

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

Author Bio

  • NamePhyllis McGinley
  • Descriptionwriter and poet
  • BornMarch 21, 1905
  • DiedFebruary 22, 1978
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWriter; Poet
  • AwardsPulitzer Prize For Poetry