Top 40 Abigail Van Buren Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The best index to a person’s character is how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and how he treats people who can’t fight back.”

— Abigail Van Buren

2. “A church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”

— Abigail Van Buren

3. “The less you talk, the more you’re listened to.”

— Abigail Van Buren

4. “If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money.”

— Abigail Van Buren

5. “Fear less, hope more. Eat less, chew more. Talk less, say more. Hate less, love more...”

— Abigail Van Buren

6. “A bad habit never disappears miraculously, it’s an undo-it-yourself project.”

— Abigail Van Buren

7. “If you don’t value what you have, you’re sure to lose it.”

— Abigail Van Buren

8. “Fighting fire with fire only gets you ashes!”

— Abigail Van Buren

9. “Maturity is the ability to do a job whether you’re supervised or not; finish a job once it’s started; carry money without spending it; and the ability to bear an injustice without wanting to get even.”

— Abigail Van Buren

10. “So yesterday you fell off the wagon? Or maybe you blew your diet? Or lost your temper and shot off your mouth? Well, that was yesterday. Today is a brand-new day with a clean slate, so forget yesterday!”

— Abigail Van Buren

11. “If you want a place in the sun, you have got to put up with a few blisters.”

— Abigail Van Buren

12. “The church is not a museum for saints it’s a hospital for sinners.”

— Abigail Van Buren

13. “While forbidden fruit is said to taste sweeter, it usually spoils faster.”

— Abigail Van Buren

14. “If we could sell our experiences for what they cost us, we’d all be millionaires.”

— Abigail Van Buren

15. “If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.”

— Abigail Van Buren

16. “Many husbands today pitch in to help with household chores – it’s called partnership.”

— Abigail Van Buren

17. “Loneliness is the ultimate poverty.”

— Abigail Van Buren

18. “Wisdom doesn’t automatically come with old age. Nothing does – except wrinkles. It’s true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place.”

— Abigail Van Buren

19. “Kissing power is stronger than will power: Girls need to “prove their love” like a moose needs a hat rack.”

— Abigail Van Buren

20. “Cruel words erode the self-esteem like the ocean eats away the shore.”

— Abigail Van Buren

21. “Believing that the dream of freedom, brotherhood, and peace for all mankind will someday come true.”

— Abigail Van Buren

22. “I can’t think of a more potent combination than God and a good lawyer.”

— Abigail Van Buren

23. ““You could move?” – “Dear Abby” responds to a reader who complained that a gay couple was moving in across the street and wanted to know what he could do to improve the quality of the neighborhood.”

— Abigail Van Buren

24. “Love is what enables us to bridge the gap of disappointment when others don’t live up to the expectations we have of them.”

— Abigail Van Buren

25. “Never give a golfer an ultimatum unless you’re prepared to lose.”

— Abigail Van Buren

26. “Never advise anyone to go to war or to get married.”

— Abigail Van Buren

27. “In Biblical times, a man could have as many wives as he could afford. Just like today.”

— Abigail Van Buren

28. “Women who miscalculate are called mothers.”

— Abigail Van Buren

29. “True, a little learning is a dangerous thing, but it still beats total ignorance.”

— Abigail Van Buren

30. “It is true that I was born in Iowa, but I can’t speak for my twin sister.”

— Abigail Van Buren

31. “SO the richest are often the poorest as this saying goes, “Loneliness is the ultimate poverty””

— Abigail Van Buren

32. “It is a sad commentary of our times when our young must seek advice and counsel from ‘Dear Abby’ instead of going to Mom and Dad.”

— Abigail Van Buren

33. “Psychotherapy, unlike castor oil, which will work no matter how you get it down, is useless when forced on an uncooperative patient.”

— Abigail Van Buren

34. “There is no end to the undeserved misery and mischief it could create.”

— Abigail Van Buren

35. “The lack of faith is not doubt. It is certainty.”

— Abigail Van Buren

36. “The purpose of life is to amount to something and have it make some difference that you lived at all.”

— Abigail Van Buren

37. “It is totally unconscionable to subject defenseless animals to mutilation and death, just so a company can be the first to market a new shade of nail polish or a new, improved laundry detergent. It’s cruel, it’s brutal, it’s inhumane, and most people don’t want it.”

— Abigail Van Buren

38. “Accept every blind date you can get, even with a girl who wears jeans. Maybe you can talk her out of them.”

— Abigail Van Buren

39. “Kissing power is stronger than will power.”

— Abigail Van Buren

40. “Religion, like water, may be free, but when they pipe it to you, you’ve got to help pay for the piping. And the piper.”

— Abigail Van Buren

41. “You are what you are when nobody is looking.”

— Abigail Van Buren

42. “How should they answer?”

— Abigail Van Buren