Amy Dickinson famous quotes
04-17-2025
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In the name of friendship you should make sure your door is always open to listen. Don't feel you need to provide unsolicited possible solutions, answers or even ideas. Listening without judgment and offering assistance when asked should be enough. That's friendship's high calling.
-- Amy Dickinson -
As an advice columnist, I spend a lot of time reading through psychology journals to ensure that I give the most up-to-date advice.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Climb aboard life's elevator, hit the "up" button, and see where it takes you.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Sometimes the way through someone's tough outer shell is to do something obvious, thoughtful and sweet.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Sometimes toxic people are so resistant to change that therapy does not really help them - but they send everybody else into therapy to find ways to cope.
-- Amy Dickinson -
The ability to break a loved one's heart is the essential contradiction in human relationships.
-- Amy Dickinson -
The fullness of life is incubated in its messy places.
-- Amy Dickinson -
There is nothing more painful than being rejected simply for being who you are.
-- Amy Dickinson -
This is a tough situation. But it is what it is, and time has an amazing way of knitting together solutions as long as everybody stays calm and resolves to be as gentle and patient as possible.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Single parenthood is hard, but it's simple too. You just do everything yourself.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Perspective is the enemy of long-lost love.
-- Amy Dickinson -
People who are combative in one relationship tend to be combative in other relationships.
-- Amy Dickinson -
People don't change when they don't acknowledge their actions.
-- Amy Dickinson -
One person gets to decide if something is a problem in a relationship.
-- Amy Dickinson -
One of the privileges of adulthood is that your parents don't get to tell you what to do.
-- Amy Dickinson -
One of the benefits of being divorced is that you no longer need to listen to your ex's assessment of the appropriateness of your actions.
-- Amy Dickinson -
One downside of being an optimist is that optimistic people tend to forget yesterday's trauma in the belief that everything will turn out well. This can keep people in bad relationships because they genuinely believe that things will always improve.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Needy and boring parents tend to have needy and bored children.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Not every relationship can be altered to fit.
-- Amy Dickinson -
We human beings are definitely capable of loving more than one person, but it seems to go more smoothly if we don't love more than one person at a time.
-- Amy Dickinson -
When you're a single parent, you're often lonely, yet seldom alone. There is no backup ... It is mothering without a net.
-- Amy Dickinson -
We are not our best intentions. We are what we do.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Friends tell the truth to one another. Friends don't slam the door to correction or reflection when it is offered with affection.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Your job in life is to look after yourself and to find ways to get what you need - emotionally and otherwise - so that you live your best possible life, without being mired in anger and hurt over the past.
-- Amy Dickinson -
You should not propose marriage until you have resolved your feelings about your ex.
-- Amy Dickinson -
You should not be hovering in the background, inflating the drama. Simply envelop him in love and affection and let him know that you will support his efforts, whatever they are.
-- Amy Dickinson -
You should do what you want, but I think you should also consider wanting something different.
-- Amy Dickinson -
You need to start behaving like the person you want to attract.
-- Amy Dickinson -
You must give and receive love only when doing so doesn't hurt others. That's the ethical path, and you should gain strength from walking it.
-- Amy Dickinson -
You cannot tie your fiance to the railroad track of self-reflection and personal improvement.
-- Amy Dickinson -
You cannot beat the clock. My advice is to grab your moments of grace and enjoy them while they last.
-- Amy Dickinson -
[from a reader] Whenever I feel myself resenting someone, I reach out. I have made good friends that way.
-- Amy Dickinson -
When you are wondering whether to say something negative about someone - even if it is true - the best rule to follow is, "I'll think about doing this tomorrow."
-- Amy Dickinson -
When you are criticizing someone, you should speak only to your own experience - not others'.
-- Amy Dickinson -
When the choice is between a demanding relationship and a vintage pickup truck, I'll choose the truck every time.
-- Amy Dickinson -
When someone repeatedly insists that something isn't true, it increases the likelihood that it is.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Weddings and funerals are when you figure out who your real friends are.
-- Amy Dickinson -
"Nags" nag because they feel they aren't being heard.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Mature people must find their own ways to cope with their own temptations.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Groveling for connection from someone who compares you to Hitler is not good for a person's self-esteem.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Friendships can survive after massive disappointment, but only if both parties are honest with one another.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Friends tell each other the truth, and then friends stick around for the aftermath.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Do not make your current partner pay for the crimes and misdemeanors of your previous partners.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Couples who have been together for a long time say the key to staying together is to work as a team toward the greater good, tolerating some tough (even tragic) times to grow together and work toward a mature kind of union.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Bullies never want to acknowledge their own actions. They want to move through life without reflection or apology.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Bullies often act out by marshaling aggression to cover up for insecurity.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Boredom has an important function, because pushing through it can unleash creativity.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Being inclusive sometimes means being kind toward people whose views are repugnant. But you should only do so if it is physically and emotionally safe for you.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Being alone is almost always preferable to being with the wrong person.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Attraction happens when you feel important, valued, appreciated and wanted.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Ask 10 people about their family relationships and at least five of them will report an estrangement.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Almost any group of three is going to form a triangle, with two points closer to one another.
-- Amy Dickinson -
All promises are empty - until they are fulfilled.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Absence really can make the heart grow fonder, even when the [man's] feet wander.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Have you ever noticed how bored people are also boring?
-- Amy Dickinson -
He sounds like someone who might best be loved from a distance.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Healthy boundaries are important, but you may be building a brick wall when a picket fence would do.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Marriage is an intimate relationship between two people. It is a bad idea to involve a third party.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Love is an irrational force, making humans do all sorts of strange and wonderful things like write poetry and take up the ukulele.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Life is weird. And guess what makes it weird? People.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Life is both short and complicated. People sometimes make baffling choices.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Life is easier when you are comfortable in your own skin.
-- Amy Dickinson -
Individuals who are uncomfortable with themselves sometimes emit vibes that make others uncomfortable.
-- Amy Dickinson -
In life, you don't get instant satisfaction. In life, you get to slog. You work. You grow. You take the long view. You fill the void with self-actualization.
-- Amy Dickinson -
If you've got a good book with you, you're never bored (or alone).
-- Amy Dickinson -
If you turn the heat down on the relationship, she will soften, the tension will lessen, and she will eventually inch closer to you. Don't go in for the hug until you achieve a handshake.
-- Amy Dickinson -
If you miss one moment of enjoying your own life and relationships because you're trying to punish someone else, the bad guy wins.
-- Amy Dickinson -
If you feel guilty about not "playing nice," then you could easily alleviate your guilt by playing nice.
-- Amy Dickinson -
If people thought more, we'd all have less to amuse us.
-- Amy Dickinson -
If nothing changes, you will have to put your disappointment in perspective.
-- Amy Dickinson -
I think that, on some level, everybody lives vicariously through couples who are getting married.
-- Amy Dickinson -
[from a reader] I hope she learns to look for the joy in life instead of picking out negatives - it will change her life for the better.
-- Amy Dickinson -
I believe that everyone deserves love, and sometimes looking outside your own culture is a good way to find it.
-- Amy Dickinson -
A threat is a promise followed by a consequence.
-- Amy Dickinson
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