Quotes from Valerie Frankel

Women get into a relationship hoping a man will change, and he never does; men get into a relationship hoping the woman don't change, but she always does. Men want their partners to be consistent. That they won't make impromptu impossible demands nor baffle him with classically female sudden-onset hysterical behavior.

When you look in the mirror, it's usually to fix your hair or put on makeup. To examine your body searching for problem areas. We look at ourselves to see the flaw, not beauty. And we look at predictable times, in the morning, after using the bathroom, before bed. We hardly ever see ourselves when we aren't prepared for inspection. But only when you're unprepared can you see your true self, your true beauty.

Love is an uphill climb, but once you know yourself and like yourself just as you are, it's all downhill from there.

So now i know. I fear the unknown so deeply that I'de rather repeat the same heart-breaking pattern than face something or someone i can't predict.

Be emotionally authentic. Close the gap between who you think you should be and who you really are, she said. If you're honest about your feelings, you're in harmony. If you're dishonest about them, you're in chaos. -Mary T. Browne

Positive thoughts about life were connected to love and success. If A equaled C, and B equaled C, then A and B had to be the same. Food was life.

Perfectionism really is the enemy of happiness and success.

Lock in on the eyes--not the stomach, or the thighs--and make a vow to yourself to define existence by generating thoughts, feelings, and actions that increase the amount of joy and happiness in your head, your home, and the world.

The choices we made, the long-forgotten decisions, the painfully unforgettable ones, are the framework of our lives, thought Alicia. All of her choices and decisions had brought her to this moment in bed with Tim. When you looked at life that way, it was hard not to blame yourself for your own unhappiness.

Personal style gives women power. Personal style is derived from you, not from a magazine or a designer.

Your look is visual currency.

If you have only one chance to telegraph a message via the way you dress, why not make it a good impression

What I'm telling you is that personal style, dressing well and caring about your clothes, is one simple way to make you feel better, to lighten the load. Why shouldn't you take advantage? Given how hard life can be, why not do the easy part?

Your closet should me you feel giddy, like you're surrounded by beauty. It should be your happy place, giving you a sense of safety and competence.

Strivers are driven to test themselves over and over again. They don't rest on their accomplishments. Success urges them to reach higher, take bigger risks. If they fail, they pull themselves back up. Ambition is the essence of human evolution. Strivers adapt to their changing environment.

Excess weight was the physical accumulation of past hurts, insults, disappointments, and resentments that, once released from the mind and soul, were freed from the body.

Basically, it doesn't take all that much physical effort to shape up your mind.

The ability to laugh at yourself is a sign of higher intelligence.

Grace, personality, and intelligence are the things you love about yourself on the inside--and you can love them about yourself on the outside, too.

When a woman walks out in the morning with confidence--she loves her heels, her dress, she thinks she looks great--her day will be better. She'll be nicer to the people she interacts with. They'll have a better day. And so on, and so on. You're creating joy and spreading it around. Is that insignificant?

All in a day's work for the Good Witch.

My future would be devoted to strength--of character and muscle.

You have to love your body as a living organism, not hate it as a flawed decorative statue.

She seemed to represent a conscious choice between (1) a healthy, strong future of thriving and surviving and (2) a slothful existence of inactivity, illness, decline, and dependence.