Quotes

In Hollywood, the women are all peaches. It makes one long for an apple occasionally.

It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved.

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

A woman will always sacrifice herself if you give her the opportunity. It is her favorite form of self-indulgence.

It is a funny thing about life. If you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

Life is too short to do anything for oneself that one can pay others to do for one.

Sentimentality is the only sentiment that rubs you the wrong way.

If 50 million people say a foolish thing, it's still a foolish thing.

Looking back upon my work in my old age, I am disposed to regard it very modestly and to admit frankly some of its shortcomings.

Art, if it is to be reckoned as one of the great values of life, must teach men humility, tolerance, wisdom and magnanimity. The value of art is not beauty, but right action.

To have learnt to play a good game of bridge is the safest insurance against the tedium of old age.

Every writer hits now and then upon a thought that seems to him so happy, a repartee that amuses him so much, that to cut it is worse than having a tooth out. It is then that it is well to have engraved on his heart the maxim, If you can cut, cut.

Being famous is like having a string of pearls given you. It's nice, but after a while, if you think of it at all, it's only to wonder if they're real or cultured.

When I was young the conception of a gentlemen had value. Now, not only what it stood for but the word itself has become vaguely objectionable. Outside lavatories you will often see 'Ladies' on the door of one, but 'Men' on the door of another.

No one can be original by trying.

I do not think I am any better or any worse than most people, but I know that if I set down every action in my mind and every thought that has crossed my mind, the world would consider me a monster of depravity.

She plunged into a sea of platitudes and, with the powerful breast stroke of a channel swimmer, made her confident way towards the white cliffs of the obvious.

In a story, as in a play, you must make up your mind what your point is and stick to it like grim death.

In France, a man who has ruined himself for women is generally regarded with sympathy and admiration. There is a feeling that it was worthwhile, and the man who has done it feels even a certain pride in the fact. In England, he will be thought and will think himself a damned fool.

[on death and life] It wasn't until quite late in life that I discovered how easy it was to say, 'I don't know.'

The humorist has a good eye for the humbug: he does not always recognize the saint.

[ describing the French Riviera] A sunny place for shady people.

Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mother.