Top 145 Quotes & Sayings by Phil McGraw

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American psychologist Phil McGraw.

Last updated on April 14, 2025.

Phillip Calvin McGraw, better known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality, author, and the host of the television show Dr. Phil. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased renewing his license to practice psychology in 2006.

American - Psychologist | Born: September 1, 1950

Source: Wikipedia

You need to listen to your body because your body is listening to you.

Phil McGraw

The Internet is just bringing all kinds of information into the home. There's just a lot of distraction, a lot of competition for the parent's voice to resonate in the children's ears.

Phil McGraw

I'm embarrassed every time I look a teacher in the eye, because we ask them to do so much for so little.

Phil McGraw

Oh, everybody wears a mask. We all put our best foot forward. We all try and make a statement, I'm not saying that's bad.

Phil McGraw

Don't wait until you're in a crisis to come up with a crisis plan.

Phil McGraw

Eighty percent of all choices are based on fear. Most people don't choose what they want; they choose what they think is safe.

Phil McGraw

If you've gone into a marriage and you haven't been clear about how you're going to handle money, how you want to raise kids, who is going to work or stay home or what have you, then you've set yourself up for failure.

Phil McGraw

Successful weight loss takes programming, not willpower.

Phil McGraw

The problem is that for women, the average time is just over 14 minutes... men are left with about 12 minutes during which time they need to think of something to do!

Phil McGraw

I think you're running into a lot of trouble if your idea of foreplay is, 'Brace yourself honey, here I come!'

Phil McGraw

It's hard to see your own face without a mirror.

Phil McGraw

You're only lonely if you're not there for you.

Phil McGraw

You have got to decide, look, this is who I am; this is my best way to present myself, and I'm going to ride that horse to the finish line. Not everybody will like it, but that's OK.

Phil McGraw

I think I've got the best staff in television.

Phil McGraw

If I was on the air and was just kind of a plain-vanilla personality that took the safe road and the safe way trying to please all of the people all of the time, I'd been gone in two weeks.

Phil McGraw

My dad used to say, 'You wouldn't worry so much about what people thought about you if you knew how seldom they did.

Phil McGraw

I think every parent, every generation has wanted their children to do better and have a higher standard of living. But I think there's too much guilt.

Phil McGraw

Take it from a guy: If you're in love with somebody, you will swim the stream, you will climb the mountain, you will slay the dragon. You're going to get to her somehow, some way.

Phil McGraw

I mean, look, teachers don't do their job for the money, obviously, because we pay them ridiculously little amounts for what they put in. Most of them come out of their own pocket for materials and things to help the children and all that.

Phil McGraw

Relationships are negotiated and if you deal with ultimatums and authority all the time, then you're not going to get anywhere.

Phil McGraw

The most you get is what you ask for.

Phil McGraw

What I want people to do is what's healthy for them.

Phil McGraw

When you get married, your loyalty, first and foremost, is to your spouse, and to the family that you create together.

Phil McGraw

It's so much easier to tell people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.

Phil McGraw

We teach people how to treat us.

Phil McGraw

It's better to be healthy alone than sick with someone else.

Phil McGraw

Nothing's funnier to me than laughing at myself.

Phil McGraw

A year from now, you're gonna weigh more or less than what you do right now.

Phil McGraw

There is nothing wrong with your marriage if you're dealing with bills and kids and the broken garbage disposal and in-laws and work demands. That's a normal marriage.

Phil McGraw

Now, my body fat runs around 18 percent, which is normal and, you know, kind of in the middle of normal, actually.

Phil McGraw

I mean, if you degrade someone, you isolate them, you control them, you call them names, you demean them. That's a horrible existence for people.

Phil McGraw

Sometimes you just got to give yourself what you wish someone else would give you.

Phil McGraw

I'm one of those that believes you can't be one kind of a man and another kind of president.

Phil McGraw

Food is a coping mechanism; people are afraid of giving it up because then they'll feel confused and lost.

Phil McGraw

It's great if the in-laws themselves put up boundaries. But if they won't; it's up to their grown kids to do it and enforce them.

Phil McGraw

God is a loving god.

Phil McGraw

If your neighbor has a completely different view on abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, all of those things, you still are both Americans. Neither one of you is necessarily more patriotic than the other. Neither loves their country any more than the other one does.

Phil McGraw

A lot of people do have tragic childhoods. But you know what? Get over it.

Phil McGraw

I don't substitute anybody else's judgment for my own.

Phil McGraw

I have some wonderful friends from the Mideast that are as red, white and blue as anybody you know, that have been harassed, and I think it's a terrible, terrible thing.

Phil McGraw

Parents need to dial in and know what their kids are doing.

Phil McGraw

Well, let me tell you, if you're 45, had three children and are post-menopausal, you're not going to weigh what you did the day you graduated from high school. Get that out of your head. That's a media-driven ideal that you're never going to healthfully obtain.

Phil McGraw

Not everybody is some kind of media model.

Phil McGraw

You don't need a rope to pinch a stranger's butt.

Phil McGraw

Awareness without action is worthless.

Phil McGraw

At the end of the day, whether or not those people are comfortable with how you're living your life doesn't matter. What matters is whether you're comfortable with it.

Phil McGraw

We all have a social mask, right? We put it on, we go out, put our best foot forward, our best image. But behind that social mask is a personal truth, what we really, really believe about who we are and what we're capable of.

Phil McGraw

If you want more, you have to require more from yourself.

Phil McGraw

People are used to being coddled.

Phil McGraw

There are some sick people in this world.

Phil McGraw

I grew up in athletics, where people keep score.

Phil McGraw

I tell you, if you're in the front row of the parade and you stop walking, pretty soon you're back in the tuba section. And if you want to lead the parade you've got to keep moving.

Phil McGraw

Do you realize that you can't play the game of life with sweaty palms?

Phil McGraw

I do not believe, even remotely, that you have to have a partner in your life in order to be whole, in order to be complete, in order to be fulfilled. You just don't have to.

Phil McGraw

Life is a full-contact sport, and there's a score up on the board.

Phil McGraw

Sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you make the decision right.

Phil McGraw

You don't need a pack of wild horses to learn how to make a sandwich.

Phil McGraw

If you're trying to get out of debt, you have to be willing to treat everything as expendable.

Phil McGraw

There's a big difference between falling in love and being in love. There's a big difference between infatuation and falling in love.

Phil McGraw

I've learned a tremendous amount from Oprah.