Marlo Thomas Quotes

#1. Before I came to New York, I only had a few pictures of the city in my mind. And you know 'That Girl?' Marlo Thomas jumping with her hat? I always loved that, and I wondered what that double street she crosses is. And it's Park Avenue! And that's what I can see out my window.

Kate Spade

#2. In my work, there's a tremendous amount of rejection and waves of fertile and fallow times.

Marlo Thomas

#3. It's important to think big, but you've got to work small.

Marlo Thomas

#4. Living with these teenage boys allowed me to see how much their psyches were like their girl counterparts. They were more familiar to me than I would have thought.

Marlo Thomas

#5. I have this theory that there are two kinds of people in the world, people who stop at a traffic accident and those that just drive by. If I see a traffic accident, I am going to stop. I do notice. I don't think that makes me a good or bad person, or anybody else better or worse.

Marlo Thomas

#6. People don't want to be bothered, if they're not being pressured to change. You have to push people. You have to be the agitator that makes the pearl.

Marlo Thomas

#7. My father (Danny Thomas) used to tell me there are two kinds of people, the takers and the givers. 'The takers sometimes eat better,' he would say, 'but the givers always sleep better.'

Marlo Thomas

#8. Losing my parents was probably the hardest and deepest blow from which I've had to recover.

Marlo Thomas

#9. One of the things women are very good at, that's networking. Women are not afraid to say, "I need." They're not afraid. Men won't even ask for directions. Women will tell each other when they need something. Women will tell each other when their husband is having an affair. Men don't do that.

Marlo Thomas

#10. One of the many reasons I love living in New York is that we get a front row seat to the innumerable thrills that take place here - from conventions and awards shows, to parades and U.N. assemblies. But my favorite New York tradition is the annual New Year's Eve ball-drop on Times Square.

Marlo Thomas

#11. Fame lost its appeal for me when I went into a public restroom and an autograph seeker handed me a pen and paper under the stall door.

Marlo Thomas

#12. When I look back at those pictures of my mother performing - and listen to her recordings - it makes me sad to think that all of that joy she found in her work came to an end. I wish she hadn't had to make that sacrifice, even if it was for the benefit of my father and siblings and me.

Marlo Thomas

#13. There are those who think that the private lives of candidates are none of our business. But when those candidates ask us for our attention as they explain their plans for how they will represent us, no one should be surprised at our interest in how they represent themselves.

Marlo Thomas

#14. The Golden Girls certainly proved that there was a large audience for a show about older women.

Marlo Thomas

#15. I realize now that I was a feminist and the minute I heard the word I certainly knew it meant me, but at that time I don't think we had the label yet. But there's no doubt about it that I was born a feminist.

Marlo Thomas

#16. In the 1960s we were fighting to be recognized as equals in the marketplace, in marriage, in education and on the playing field. It was a very exciting, rebellious time.

Marlo Thomas

#17. Today, all patients accepted for treatment at St. Jude's are treated without regard for the family's ability to pay. Everything beyond what is covered by insurance is taken care of, and for those without insurance, all of the medical costs are absorbed by the hospital.

Marlo Thomas

#18. You know, there's endorphins in laughter, as there are endorphins in running in the park.

Marlo Thomas

#19. So I still seized the power, but I felt that if I officially made myself the boss, in black and white, it would be too intimidating for the other producers and the other men who worked on the show. In other words, I had the power, but I gave them the title.

Marlo Thomas

#20. Marriage is like a vacuum cleaner. You stick it to your ear and it sucks out all your energy and ambition.

Marlo Thomas

#21. I wish someone would have told me that, just because I'm a girl, I don't have to get married.

Marlo Thomas

#22. That is the difference between St. Jude's and all other children's hospitals. The other hospitals are not bad at all; they're good hospitals, but they're just working with what they know, and St. Jude's is working with what nobody else knows, because they're doing research.

Marlo Thomas

#23. Women should know that they don't have to hang on to an old dream that has stopped nurturing them - that there is always time to start a new dream.

Marlo Thomas

#24. A man has to be Joe McCarthy to be called ruthless. All a woman has to do is put you on hold.

Marlo Thomas

#25. If it's one thing we learned from the first book, it's that you don't have to be a prizefighter, or a world-renowned architect, or a concert violinist to have been affected by the power of words.

Marlo Thomas

#26. It's because it was at a time when women didn't have any power. It was so unusual for a young woman in her 20s to have power that I seized the power but tried not to flaunt it.

Marlo Thomas

#27. Despite our ever-connective technology, neither Skype nor Facebook - not even a telephone call - can come close to the joy of being with loved ones in person.

Marlo Thomas

#28. What I love about the theater is the work ethic. I grew up with it.

Marlo Thomas

#29. We've been taught to believe that actions speak louder than words. But I think words speak pretty loud all of our lives; we carry these words in our head.

Marlo Thomas

#30. The rejection that we all take and the sadness and the aggravation and the loss of jobs and all of the things that we live through in our lives, without a sense of humor, I don't know how people make it.

Marlo Thomas

#31. People really want to do something good. You just have to show them where it is.

Marlo Thomas

#32. Small steps can help people make big changes to achieve what they really desire. That wish isn't going to go anywhere unless you do something about it. Every day, just do one thing. At the end of six months, you'll be somewhere.

Marlo Thomas

#33. We are a research center and treatment facility all under one roof.

Marlo Thomas

#34. One of the things about equality is not just that you be treated equally to a man, but that you treat yourself equally to the way you treat a man.

Marlo Thomas

#35. What the results are telling them is that the most money is spent in volume by young people. They also see young people as the consumers of tomorrow and are trying to capture their attention from their competitors.

Marlo Thomas

#36. One woman is a pest and two women is a team, but three women or more is a coalition. If you can bring a lot of people together as a coalition, you can get a lot changed.

Marlo Thomas

#37. I was an educated girl. I'd done very well in school. I had a good point average and graduated from USC as an English teacher. My dad didn't even finish high school.

Marlo Thomas

#38. A feminist is a man or woman who already knows for a fact that men and women are qual and wants society to wake up to that fact, so the world can stop operating at half-strength.

Marlo Thomas

#39. I've always been a champion of kids pursuing their dreams. But sometimes in life, extraordinary circumstances may force us to temporarily put our dreams on hold. The most important thing is to never lose sight of that dream, no matter what punches life may throw in our way.

Marlo Thomas

#40. A society is judged by the way it cares for its most vulnerable citizens. As an American, I am ashamed that we have turned out backs on millions of our children. I want to do my part to rectify this terrible situation.

Marlo Thomas

#41. First you have to have a dream.

Marlo Thomas

#42. If you want to get somewhere in six months, you're not going to get there by wishing it.

Marlo Thomas

#43. My mother was a strong-willed and opinionated woman - a Sicilian! - and if she didn't like something, she'd let you know about it. So her undying support of her kids went a long way in proving to us that we were on the right path.

Marlo Thomas

#44. Where will I be five years from now? I delight in not knowing. That's one of the greatest things about life its wonderful surprises.

Marlo Thomas

#45. It's so important to raise people to grow up to be who they are and not be forced to be who they're not. What an awful thing to do to people - it's like being in prison.

Marlo Thomas

#46. [On husband Phil Donahue:] The man does not know the meaning of the word tidy. He asked me one day, 'Where are my shoes?' So I asked him, 'Where are my shoes?' I don't know what it is about men. They think that women have radar attached to our uteruses.

Marlo Thomas

#47. Never face facts; if you do you'll never get up in the morning.

Marlo Thomas

#48. Nothing is either all masculine or all feminine except having sex.

Marlo Thomas

#49. I think loss of loved ones is the hardest blow in life.

Marlo Thomas

#50. It's fascinating for us women to begin looking at our lives in five-year plans. It really does help you keep on track. If that's too hard, start with a two-year plan.

Marlo Thomas

#51. My father said there were two kinds of people in the world: givers and takers. The takers may eat better, but the givers sleep better.

Marlo Thomas

#52. In that I found being able to talk to my family about my feelings, praying for strength and realizing that our lives have a deep purpose and the journey of our lives is to find out what that is and express it, was the only way I could have gotten through it.

Marlo Thomas

#53. I know George Burns was a very happy man.

Marlo Thomas

#54. There's no doubt about it ... I was born a feminist.

Marlo Thomas

#55. Laughter is important, not only because it makes us happy, it also has actual health benefits. And that's because laughter completely engages the body and releases the mind. It connects us to others, and that in itself has a healing effect.

Marlo Thomas

#56. When I was growing up, my mother was always a friend to my siblings and me (in addition to being all the other things a mom is), and I was always grateful for that because I knew she was someone I could talk to and joke with, and argue with and that nothing would ever harm that friendship.

Marlo Thomas

#57. I think in my case, I had no choice but to have a good sense of humor. I grew up with my dad, Danny Thomas, and George Burns and Bob Hope and Milton Berle and Sid Caesar and all those guys were at our house all the time and telling jokes and making each other laugh.

Marlo Thomas

#58. I think that there's got to be a comic gene in some way, but it's so much about it is how you grow up.

Marlo Thomas

#59. Chiropractic solved my neck and shoulder pains; it put me back on my feet. I think chiropractic is great!

Marlo Thomas

#60. As much success came to him, my father stayed true to his promise. He built the hospital to help the most helpless children with catastrophic illnesses.

Marlo Thomas

#61. I find that balancing my life with my work with the kids at St. Jude, working on books, working on my career as an actor and taking time out for my husband and family help to cushion a lot of the blows.

Marlo Thomas

#62. I don't think homosexuality is a choice. Society forces you to think it's a choice, but in fact, it's in one's nature. The choice is whether one expresses one's nature truthfully or spends the rest of one's life lying about it.

Marlo Thomas