Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Erma Bombeck Writer

  • Gender: Female
  • Citizenship: United States
  • Born: Feb 21, 1927
  • Died: Apr 22, 1996

Erma Louise Bombeck was an American humorist who achieved great popularity for her newspaper column that described suburban home life from the mid-1960s until the late 1990s. Bombeck also published 15 books, most of which became bestsellers. From 1965 to 1996, Erma Bombeck wrote over 4,000 newspaper columns, using broad and sometimes eloquent humor, chronicling the ordinary life of a midwestern suburban housewife. By the 1970s, her columns were read twice-weekly by 30 million readers of the 900 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada.

Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.

God created man, but I could do better.

Getting out of the hospital is a lot like resigning from a book club. You're not out of it until the computer says you're out of it.

My kids always perceived the bathroom as a place where you wait it out until all the groceries are unloaded from the car.

There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.

If a man watches three football games in a row, he should be declared legally dead.

There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.

When humor goes, there goes civilization.

Onion rings in the car cushions do not improve with time.

Never order food in excess of your body weight.

Children make your life important.

Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.

Never go to your high school reunion pregnant or they will think that is all you have done since you graduated.

Sometimes I can't figure designers out. It's as if they flunked human anatomy.

Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one Helen Keller is the other.

All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them.

Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth.

A friend never defends a husband who gets his wife an electric skillet for her birthday.

I've exercised with women so thin that buzzards followed them to their cars.

Most women put off entertaining until the kids are grown.

Car designers are just going to have to come up with an automobile that outlasts the payments.

Who in their infinite wisdom decreed that Little League uniforms be white? Certainly not a mother.

It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.

Marriage has no guarantees. If that's what you're looking for, go live with a car battery.

What's with you men? Would hair stop growing on your chest if you asked directions somewhere?

It goes without saying that you should never have more children than you have car windows.

It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding.

Never have more children than you have car windows.

A friend doesn't go on a diet because you are fat.

I take a very practical view of raising children. I put a sign in each of their rooms: 'Checkout Time is 18 years.'

Dreams have only one owner at a time. That's why dreamers are lonely.

Like religion, politics, and family planning, cereal is not a topic to be brought up in public. It's too controversial.

I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.