If compliments were food, I'd have starved to death 28 years ago.
Interpretation
This quote humorously suggests that the speaker has rarely received compliments, comparing them to essential food.
Erma Bombeck's quote reflects on the scarcity of compliments in her life, highlighting how vital positive affirmations are to one's emotional well-being, much like food is to physical survival. With a touch of humor, she underscores the idea that compliments, just like nourishment, play a significant role in sustaining one's happiness and sense of self-worth, and lacking them can feel equally detrimental.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of recognizing others and providing feedback.
We've got a generation now who were born with semiequality. They don't know how it was before, so they think, this isn't too bad. We're working. We have our attache' cases and our three piece suits. I get very disgusted with the younger generation of women. We had a torch to pass, and they are just sitting there. They don't realize it can be taken away. Things are going to have to get worse before they join in fighting the battle.
You hear a lot of dialogue on the death of the American family. Families aren't dying. They're merging into big conglomerates.
Making coffee has become the great compromise of the decade. It's the only thing "real" men do that doesn't seem to threaten their masculinity. To women, it's on the same domestic entry level as putting the spring back into the toilet-tissue holder or taking a chicken out of the freezer to thaw.
Not everyone is comfortable with the kissing ritual. My husband is one of them. Her refuses to press lips with anyone except his wife, mother, and dog. If someone wanted to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, he would refuse until he had been formally introduced.
There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.
Maybe age is kinder to us than we think. With my bad eyes, I can't see how bad I look, and with my rotten memory, I have a good excuse for getting out of a lot of stuff.
A sold-out house my first night back. Do you have any idea what kinda pressure that is? I could have been at home in my warm bed, playing Nintendo.
The critic's symbol should be the tumble-bug: he deposits his egg in somebody else's dung, otherwise he could not hatch it.
According to the rules of comedy, your suffering will be funny after an undetermined length of time. Maybe not while you're having your gangrenous leg sawed off, watching your home burn down or learning how to be intimate with your cellmate, but, in the big scheme of things, soon.
Sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.
People would say I never censor. As Billy Crystal says, 'I don't have that button.'
I am sorry to tell you that I am getting very extravagant and spending all my money: and what is worse for you, I have been spending yours too.
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