WIST Quotations https://wist.info Wish I'd Said That! Fri, 24 Jul 2026 23:52:13 +0000 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.2 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.2 https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/little-w-little-box-60x60.jpg Schmich, Mary – WIST Quotations https://wist.info 32 32 43606282 Schmich, Mary -- “Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1997-07-01) https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21413/ https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21413/#comments Thu, 13 Jun 2013 11:57:17 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21413 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 (1841), Jane Addams (1880), 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®. ]]> https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21413/feed/ 4 21413 Schmich, Mary -- “Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21293/ https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21293/#respond Thu, 30 May 2013 12:23:18 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21293 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) ]]> https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21293/feed/ 0 21293 Schmich, Mary -- “Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) https://wist.info/schmich-mary/20805/ https://wist.info/schmich-mary/20805/#respond Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:55:01 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=20805 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 (b. 1953) American newspaper columnist
“Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) ]]> https://wist.info/schmich-mary/20805/feed/ 0 20805 Schmich, Mary -- “Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) https://wist.info/schmich-mary/20853/ https://wist.info/schmich-mary/20853/#respond Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:43:37 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=20853 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.


Mary Schmich (b. 1953) American newspaper columnist
“Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) ]]> https://wist.info/schmich-mary/20853/feed/ 0 20853 Schmich, Mary -- “Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21033/ https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21033/#respond Thu, 02 May 2013 13:14:36 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21033 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.


Mary Schmich (b. 1953) American newspaper columnist
“Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) ]]> https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21033/feed/ 0 21033 Schmich, Mary -- “Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21108/ https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21108/#respond Thu, 09 May 2013 13:30:35 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21108 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.


Mary Schmich (b. 1953) American newspaper columnist
“Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) ]]> https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21108/feed/ 0 21108 Schmich, Mary -- “Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21170/ https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21170/#respond Thu, 16 May 2013 12:14:05 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21170 Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.


Mary Schmich (b. 1953) American newspaper columnist
“Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) ]]> https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21170/feed/ 0 21170 Schmich, Mary -- “Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21246/ https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21246/#respond Thu, 23 May 2013 14:42:41 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21246 Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.


Mary Schmich (b. 1953) American newspaper columnist
“Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) ]]> https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21246/feed/ 0 21246 Schmich, Mary -- “Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21356/ https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21356/#respond Thu, 06 Jun 2013 11:50:51 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21356 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) ]]> https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21356/feed/ 0 21356 Schmich, Mary -- “Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21445/ https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21445/#respond Thu, 20 Jun 2013 15:23:08 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21445 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) ]]> https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21445/feed/ 0 21445 Schmich, Mary -- “Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21500/ https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21500/#respond Thu, 27 Jun 2013 20:41:51 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21500 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) ]]> https://wist.info/schmich-mary/21500/feed/ 0 21500