1.
It's better to be hated for who you are, than to be loved for someone you're not. It's a sign of your worth sometimes, if you're hated by the right people.
Bette Davis
'It is preferable to be reviled for one's true self than lauded for a false guise. On occasion, the animosity of the proper people can serve as evidence of one's worth.'
2.
You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good . . . Joan Crawford is dead. Good.
Bette Davis
'It is inappropriate to criticize the deceased, one should only speak positively... Joan Crawford has passed away. Affirmative.'
3.
There comes a time in every woman's life when the only thing that helps is a glass of champagne.
Bette Davis
A juncture arrives in every female's life when the only remedy is a flute of sparkling wine.
4.
Getting old is not for sissies.
Bette Davis
Ageing is not for the faint of heart.
5.
Some young Hollywood starlets remind me of my grandmother's old farmhouse -- all painted up nice on the front side, a big swing on the backside, and nothing whatsoever in the attic.
Bette Davis
6.
You will never be happier than you expect. To change your happiness, change your expectation.
Bette Davis
You will never feel more contentment than what you anticipate. To alter your satisfaction, amend your outlook.
7.
If everyone likes you, you're not doing it right.
Bette Davis
If everyone approves of you, something is amiss.
8.
A sure way to lose happiness, I found, is to want it at the expense of everything else.
Bette Davis
A certain guarantee to forfeit bliss, I discovered, is to yearn for it at the expense of all else.
9.
If you've never been hated by your child, you've never been a parent.
Bette Davis
10.
My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today; I knew it then as purpose.
Bette Davis
11.
The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he's dead.
Bette Davis
12.
I'd marry again if I found a man who had fifteen million dollars, would sign over half to me, and guarantee that he'd be dead within a year.
Bette Davis
13.
I was thought to be 'stuck up.' I wasn't. I was just sure of myself. This is and always has been an unforgivable quality to the unsure.
Bette Davis
14.
There may be a heaven, but if Joan Crawford is there, I'm not going.
Bette Davis
15.
It's true we don't know what we've got until its gone, but we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives. Pleasure of love lasts but a moment, Pain of love lasts a lifetime.
Bette Davis
16.
Being called very, very difficult is the beginning of success. Until you're called very, very difficult you're really nobody at all.
Bette Davis
17.
You should know me well enough by now to know I don't ask for things I don't think I can get.
Bette Davis
18.
I want to die with my high heels on, still in action.
Bette Davis
19.
Pleasure of love lasts but a moment, Pain of love lasts a lifetime.
Bette Davis
20.
Basically, I believe the world is a jungle, and if it's not a bit of a jungle in the home, a child cannot possibly be fit to enter the outside world.
Bette Davis
21.
Life is the past, the present and the perhaps.
Bette Davis
22.
I am a woman meant for a man, but I never found a man who could compete.
Bette Davis
23.
If everybody likes you, you're pretty dull.
Bette Davis
24.
One begins to realize that one is getting old when the birthday candles weigh more than the cake.
Bette Davis
25.
I have been uncompromising, peppery, intractable, monomaniacal, tactless, volatile, and oftentimes disagreeable... I suppose I'm larger than life.
Bette Davis
26.
Old age is no place for sissies.
Bette Davis
27.
I have eyes like a bullfrog, a neck like an ostrich and long, limp hair. You just have to be good to survive with that equipment.
Bette Davis
28.
Don't you hate people who drink white wine? I mean, my dear, every alcoholic in town is getting falling-down drunk on white wine. They think they aren't drunks because they only drink wine. Never, never trust anyone who asks for white wine. It means they're phonies.
Bette Davis
29.
The male ego with few exceptions is elephantine to start with.
Bette Davis
30.
Good actors I've worked with all started out making faces in a mirror, and you keep making faces all your life.
Bette Davis
31.
Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.
Bette Davis
32.
You know what I'm going to have on my gravestone? 'She did it the hard way.'
Bette Davis
33.
One can make more enemies as a female with a brain, I think.
Bette Davis
34.
May each of my grandsons know, at an early age, what his life's ambition is -- and may he be successful in his pursuit of that goal.
Bette Davis
35.
I wouldn't piss on Joan Crawford if she were on fire.
Bette Davis
36.
Never, never trust anyone who asks for white wine. It means they're phonies.
Bette Davis
37.
I do not regret one professional enemy I have made. Any actor who doesn't dare to make an enemy should get out of the business.
Bette Davis
38.
I often think that a slightly exposed shoulder emerging from a long satin nightgown packs more sex than two naked bodies in bed.
Bette Davis
39.
Once the love bug wears off, as it inevitably does, you are shocked to discover that you really didn't know the object of your affections at all. We know this to be so, even as we repeat the same mistake over and over and over.
Bette Davis
40.
It's a rare man who can stand being around an intelligent woman, let alone married to her.
Bette Davis
41.
I'm the nicest goddamn dame that ever lived.
Bette Davis
42.
You know what nostalgia is, don't you? It's basically a matter of recalling the fun without reliving the pain.
Bette Davis
43.
It has been my experience that one cannot, in any shape or form, depend on human relations for lasting reward. It is only work that truly satisfies.
Bette Davis
44.
To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy.
Bette Davis
45.
There was more good acting at Hollywood parties than ever appeared on the screen.
Bette Davis
46.
People often become actresses because of something they dislike about themselves: They pretend they are someone else.
Bette Davis
47.
Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.
Bette Davis
48.
The secret of marriage is: separate bedrooms and separate bathrooms.
Bette Davis
49.
I was never very interested in boys - and there were plenty of them - vying with one another to see how many famous women they would get into the hay.
Bette Davis
50.
There are new words now that excuse everybody. Give me the good old days of heroes and villains, the people you can bravo or hiss. There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today cannot touch.
Bette Davis
