Erma Bombeck Quotes

We secure our friends not by accepting favors but by doing them.

"I believe that no characteristic is so distinctively human as the sense of indebtedness we feel, not necessarily for a favor received, but even for the slightest evidence of kindness; and there is nothing so boorish, savage, inhuman as to appear to be overwhelmed by a favor, let alone unworthy of it."

The spirit in which a thing is given determines that in which the debt is acknowledged; it's the intention, not the face-value of the gift, that's weighed.

You've got to give loyalty down, if you want loyalty up.

I have always felt that if a man gives you a solid gold key to his door he is entitled to the courtesy of a visit.

All my adult life people have been helping me.

To remind a man of the good turns you have done him is very much like a reproach.

The person who receives the most favors is the one who knows how to return them.

The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.

I learned years ago to come to terms with having so much done for me by others.

In aid, the proper attitude is one omitting gratitude.

Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones - with ingratitude.

I wouldn't have become an engineer, I wouldn't have done what I did, had a hand not been held out to me. I have to remember who helped me when I needed help. The people of Jamaica helped me. I can't forget that. I would be ungrateful if I forgot.

If you want to make a dangerous man your friend, let him do you a favor.

If someone is nice enough to come up to you and tell you how much they enjoy your work, and all they want in return is to take a photograph and for you to chat for five minutes, then I am delighted to do that.

Help is dangerous because it exists outside the human economy: the only payment for help is gratitude.

You give loyalty, you'll get it back. You give love, you'll get it back.

He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.

To oblige persons often costs little and helps much.

It is not polite to receive a favor without returning it.

A favor to come is better than a hundred received.

One good turn deserves another.

I could not accept such a large sum from anyone outside my own family.

A great many men's gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter.

I thank God I've never burned no bridges with nobody, and when it's time for me to call in my favors, they're coming.