Dr Phil McGraw

I love life, but not everything in it. I love people, but not all of them. I love myself, but not everything about me.

People who consistently win have a clear and thoughtful strategy. They know what they need to do and when they need to do it. They write it down so they stay on course, and avoid any alternative that does not get them closer to the finish line.

Don’t base a relationship on sex. You need love, compassion and caring. Then sex can be a reflection of that.

Every situation needs a hero. Step up and be that for your child.

You are writing your children’s future with your answers.

There is nothing wrong with your marriage if you’re dealing with bills and kids and the broken garbage disposal and in-laws and work demands. That’s a normal marriage.

Everything is relative in this world, where change alone endures.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.

Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.

The number one need in all people is the need for acceptance, the need to experience a sense of belonging to something and someone. The need for acceptance is more powerful in your family than anywhere else…. If that need is not met by your family, trust me, your kids will go elsewhere to seek it in order to find approval and acceptance.

Public opinion is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think it is the voice of God.

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.

A goal is a dream with a finish line.

It is better to deserve honours and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them.

Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.

I’ve been trying for some time to develop a lifestyle that doesn’t require my presence.

I really wish I was less of a thinking man and more of a fool not afraid of rejection.

Everything intelligent is so boring.

When I was a little girl, I so wanted to be sociable, but I was scared that I wasn’t going to be able to speak a sentence because I had such a bad stammer.

If emotional pain or problems have cropped up in your life, you must insist on getting closure. Closure means you don’t carry the problem or the pain. You address the issue, then you slam shut the book and put it away.

You are the fever that never broke, the name stuck in my throat. You are every letter of every word in every poem I ever wrote.