Mae West Quotes

He's the kind of man a woman would have to marry to get rid of.

Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution.

I enjoyed the courtroom as just another stage but not so amusing as Broadway.

[On the metaphysical:] ... I knew in some marvelous way I had touched the hem of the unknown. And being me, I wanted to lift that hemline a little bit more.

There are no good girls gone wrong - just bad girls found out.

The best way to learn to be a lady is to see how other ladies do it.

I have never loved a man as much as I have loved myself

Don't forget honey. Never let one man worry your mind. Find 'em, fool 'em and forget 'em.

I saw what a mess a lot of people could make of their lives when they're smitten. Some of them go temporarily insane. They find a person who they think holds the key to their happiness-the only key to their happiness... My work has always been my greatest happiness

I never needed Panavision and stereophonic sound to woo the world. I did it in black and white on a screen the size of a postage stamp. Honey, that's talent.

The best way to hold a man is in your arms.

We're intellectual opposites. Well, I'm intellectual and you're opposite.

Women are as old as they feel and men are old when they lose their feelings.

Words should be used as tools of communication and not as a substitute for action

Everyone has the right to run his own life- even if you're heading for a crash. What I'm against is blind flying.

I wrote the story myself. It's all about a girl who lost her reputation but never missed it.

Good theater is not what is expected, but what surprises.

He's the kind of man who picks his friends - to pieces.

Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.

Just a little sheep dip. Panacea for all stomach ailments.

Opportunity knocks for every man, but you have to give a woman a ring.

It's easy to get married, but hard to stay that way.

Dates in Calendar are Closer Than They Appear! Time is what keeps everything from happening at once. Keep a diary, and someday it'll keep you.

An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.

I'll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.

When in doubt take a bath

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.

Men are my hobby, if I ever got married I'd have to give it up.

I never loved another person the way I loved myself.

A man has more character in his face at forty than at twenty - he has suffered longer.

When you think about it, what other playwrights are there besides O'Neill, Tennessee and me?

I like a man who's good, but not too good - for the good die young, and I hate a dead one.

She's the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong.

I've been in 'Who's Who' and I know what's what, but it'll be the first time I ever made the dictionary.

You may admire a girl's curves on the first introduction, but the second meeting shows up new angles.

It isn't what I do, but how I do it. It isn't what I say, but how I say it, and how I look when I do it and say it.

Don't let a man put anything over on you except an umbrella.

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

For a long time I was ashamed of the way I lived. Did I reform, you ask? No. I'm not ashamed anymore.

A woman in love can't be reasonable - or she probably wouldn't be in love.

Hiring someone to write your autobiography is like hiring someone to take a bath for you

In my long and colorful career, one thing stands out: I have been misunderstood.

You can do what you want, but saving love doesn't bring any interest.

Don't come crawlin' to a man for love-he likes to get a run for his money.

It's all right for a perfect stranger to kiss your hand as long as he's perfect.

Never ask a man where's he's been. If he's out on legitimate business, he doesn't need an alibi. And, girls, if he has been out on illegitimate business, it's your own fault.

Girls, give all your gentlemen friends an even break, even if you have to break them in the attempt.

A good man is hard to find -- but you'll mostly find him asleep.

I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.

A man in the house is worth two in the street.

Don't keep a man guessing too long - he's sure to find the answer somewhere else.

I'd like to see Paris before I die.

Let men see what's coming to them, and women will get what's coming to them.

Save a boyfriend for a rainy day - and another, in case it doesn't rain.

I don't know a lot about politics, but I can recognise a good party man when I see one.

Marriage? I ain't got time for a husband or child. All my life I've looked after myself as if I was my own child.

I only read biographies, metaphysics and psychology. I can dream up my own fiction.

I freely chose the kind of life I led because I was convinced that a woman has as much right as a man to live the way she does if she does no actual harm to society.

... love is banality to all outsiders.

A man can be short and dumpy and getting bald but if he has fire, women will like him.