Do one thing every day that scares you.
Mary Schmich (b. 1953) American newspaper columnist
“Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1997-07-01)
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Often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, but no reference found in her works or contemporaneous sources (though see this Eleanor quote). Also attributed to Kurt Vonnegut and to Baz Luhrmann (who used the words in a song but credited them to Schmich).Related predecessors can be found in other quotations (Emerson, Jane Addams, Mark Toby), linked back to this one below. For more discussion about this quotation, see Do One Thing Every Day That Scares You – Quote Investigator®.
Quotations by:
Schmich, Mary
Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.
Mary Schmich (b. 1953) American newspaper columnist
“Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997)
(Source)
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.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 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. You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.
Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Mary Schmich (b. 1953) American newspaper columnist
“Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997)
(Source)
Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Mary Schmich (b. 1953) American newspaper columnist
“Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997)
(Source)
Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. 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 (b. 1953) American newspaper columnist
“Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997)
(Source)