Mary Schmich Quotes - Page 2

• 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.

  Mary Schmich

  Phones, Cells, Skills

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• Be nice to your siblings. They are your link to the past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

  Mary Schmich

  Family, Sibling, Nice

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• Getting out of the house is the secret to staying alert through the droning hours leading up to the big meal, even if you don't go farther than 7-Eleven for another six-pack.

  Mary Schmich

  House, Secret, Meals

  "Thanksgiving Helper Hotline addresses pressing holiday issues" by Mary Schmich, articles.chicagotribune.com. November 21, 2012.

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• In twenty years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

  Mary Schmich

  Photography, Years, Looks

  Mary Schmich (2012). “Wear Sunscreen: A Primer for Real Life”, p.8, Andrews McMeel Publishing

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• The secret to happiness, at Thanksgiving or any time, is to reframe obligation as opportunity. You don't have to spend Thanksgiving with your family. You get to.

  Mary Schmich

  Opportunity, Secret, Obligation

  "Thanksgiving Helper Hotline addresses pressing holiday issues" by Mary Schmich, articles.chicagotribune.com. November 21, 2012.

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• I couldn't have foreseen all the good things that have followed my mother's death. The renewed energy, the surprising sweetness of grief. The tenderness I feel for strangers on walkers. The deeper love I have for my siblings and friends. The desire to play the mandolin. The gift of a visitation.

  Mary Schmich

  Mother, Sibling, Grief

  Mary Schmich (2012). “The Best of Mary Schmich: Selected Writings by the Chicago Tribune's Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary”, p.28, Agate Digital

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• 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.

  Mary Schmich

  Jobs, Average, Fiction

  Mary Schmich (2012). “The Best of Mary Schmich: Selected Writings by the Chicago Tribune's Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary”, p.35, Agate Digital

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• A line from one of my 1997 columns - 'Do one thing every day that scares you' - is now widely attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, though I have yet to see any evidence that she ever said it and I don't believe she did. She said some things about fear, but not that thing.

  Mary Schmich

  Believe, Scare, Lines

  Mary Schmich (2012). “The Best of Mary Schmich: Selected Writings by the Chicago Tribune's Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary”, p.362, Agate Digital

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• Every day each of us wakes up, reaches into drawers and closets, pulls out a costume for the day and proceeds to dress in a style that can only be called preposterous.

  Mary Schmich

  Style, Dresses, Wake Up

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• Books are like blankets, the mere sight of them around the house provides warmth and comfort. They are like mirrors, too, reflecting places I've been, phases I've been through, people I've loved or thought I did.

  Mary Schmich

  Book, Mirrors, Sight

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• Here's a thing about the death of your mother, or anyone else you love: You can't anticipate how you'll feel afterward. People will tell you; a few may be close to right, none exactly right.

  Mary Schmich

  Mother, Love You, People

  Mary Schmich (2012). “The Best of Mary Schmich: Selected Writings by the Chicago Tribune's Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary”, p.28, Agate Digital

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• Unusual commencement advice: Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen
  would be it.

  Mary Schmich

  Class, Advice, Gentleman

  Chicago Tribune, 1 June 1997. This column became widely misattributed as a commencement address by Kurt Vonnegut to the MIT Class of 1997

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• Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good.

  Mary Schmich

  Family, Parent, Gone

  Mary Schmich (2012). “The Best of Mary Schmich: Selected Writings by the Chicago Tribune's Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary”, p.33, Agate Digital

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• Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young.

  Mary Schmich

  Advice, Youth, Like You

  "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young" by Mary Schmich in Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1997.

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• 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

  Mary Schmich

  New York, Cities, California

  Mary Schmich (2012). “The Best of Mary Schmich: Selected Writings by the Chicago Tribune's Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary”, p.33, Agate Digital

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

  Mary Schmich

  True Friend, Archivists, True Friend Is

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• Do one thing every day that scares you... Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own... Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

  Mary Schmich

  Thinking, Past, Fishing

  "The greatest commencement speech ever" by Valerie Strauss, www.washingtonpost.com. May 17, 2014.

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

  Mary Schmich

  Letters, Old Love, Sunscreen

  Mary Schmich (2012). “The Best of Mary Schmich: Selected Writings by the Chicago Tribune's Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary”, p.32, Agate Digital

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• Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

  Mary Schmich

  Choices, Half, Too Much

  Mary Schmich (2012). “The Best of Mary Schmich: Selected Writings by the Chicago Tribune's Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary”, p.32, Agate Digital

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• The soul-sucking activity of TV-watching feels better when it is done with other souls.

  Mary Schmich

  Feel Better, Soul, Tvs

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• Don't waste time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind.

  Mary Schmich

  Jealousy, Waste, Wasting Time

  "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young". Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1997.

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• Worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.

  Mary Schmich

  Worry, Trying, Gum

  Mary Schmich (2012). “The Best of Mary Schmich: Selected Writings by the Chicago Tribune's Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary”, p.31, Agate Digital

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

  Mary Schmich

  Moving, Tears, Gone

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

  Mary Schmich

  Magazines, Ugly, Feels

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• One thing you might want to learn before you attend the world's largest ukulele lesson is how to say ukulele.

  Mary Schmich

  Ukulele, World, Lessons

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