Quotes by American Authors - Page 100

Because you're not what I would have you be I blind myself to who in truth you are.
Madeleine L'Engle
To expect too much is to have a sentimental view of life and this is a softness that ends in bitterness.
Flannery O'Connor
Life is not a spectacle or a feast it is a predicament.
George Santayana
The way to achieve happiness is to have a high standard for yourself and a medium one for everyone else.
Marcelene Cox
You can't move so fast that you try to change [a situation] faster than people can accept it. That doesn't mean you do nothing but it means that you do the things that need to be done according to priority.
Eleanor Roosevelt
A pint can't hold a quart-if it holds a pint it is doing all that can be expected of it.
Margaret Deland
If you expect perfection from other people your whole life is a series of disappointments grumbling and complaints. If on the contrary you pitch your expectations low taking folks as the inefficient creatures which they are you are frequently surprised by having them perform better than you had hoped.
Bruce Barton
No one has ever loved anyone the way everyone wants to be loved.
Mignon McLaughlin
What is destructive is impatience haste expecting too much too fast.
May Sarton
Expect nothing and life will be velvet.
Lisa Gardiner
Read the best books first or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
Henry David Thoreau
Friendships aren't perfect and yet they are very precious. For me not expecting perfection all in one place was a great release.
Letty Cottin Pogrebin
Be still sad heart and cease repining Behind the clouds is the sun still shining Thy fate is the common fate of all Into each life some rain must fall Some days must be dark and dreary.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
When I'm good I'm very good but when I'm bad I'm better.
Mae West
Thin people are beautiful but fat people are adorable.
Jackie Gleason
Don't quote me that's what you heard not what I said.
Lawrence K. Frank
I don't see what's wrong with giving Bobby a little experience before he starts to practise law.
John F Kennedy
Equal opportunity is good but special privilege even better.
Anna Chennault
I used to be snow-white . . . but I drifted.
Mae West
There are some people so addicted to exaggeration that they can't tell the truth without lying.
Josh Billings
In the world of mules there are no rules.
Ogden Nash
I never forget a face but in your case I'll make an exception.
Groucho Marx
Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.
Mae West
When you have got an elephant by the hind leg and he is trying to run away it is best to let him run.
Abraham Lincoln
Early to bed early to rise work like hell and advertise.
Laurence J. Peter
If I look like this I need the trip.
Gloria Swanson
Some people approach every problem with an open mouth.
Adlai Stevenson
Epitaph to a waiter: By and by God caught his eye.
David McCord
Parsely is gharsley.
Ogden Nash
While you're saving your face you're losing your ass. Never trust a man whose eyes are too close to his nose. I never trust a man unless I've got his pecker in my pocket. Better inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in.
Lyndon B. Johnson
Automatic simply means that you can't repair it yourself.
Frank Capra
If Roosevelt were alive he'd turn in his grave.
Sam Goldwyn
Every director bites the hand that lays the golden egg.
Sam Goldwyn
In California everyone goes to a therapist is a therapist or is a therapist going to a therapist.
Truman Capote
Nothing succeeds like one's own successor.
Clarence H. Hinclcs
When Babe Ruth was asked in 1930 how he felt about making more money that the President of the United States he replied 'I had a better year than he (Herbert Hoover) did.' When Tom Snyder was asked in 1977 how he felt about making more money per year than President Carter he replied 'I have to go out and buy my own 707.'
Cleveland Amory
In uplifting get underneath.
George Ade
Flint must be an extremely wealthy town I see that each of you bought two or three seats.
Victor Borge
Mother: It's broccoli dear. Child: I say it's spinach and I say the hell with it.
Carl Rose
A hole is nothing at all but you can break your neck in it.
Austin O'Malley
Include me out.
Sam Goldwyn
Epigram: a wisecrack that has played Carnegie Hall.
Oscar Levant
A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.
Sam Goldwyn
Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.
Truman Capote
When people don't want to come nothing will stop them.
Sol Hurok
Her face was her chaperone.
Rupert Hughes
Show me a man with both feet on the ground and I'll show you a man who can't put his pants on.
Arthur K. Watson
It is a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age he had been dead for two years.
Tom Lehrer
I never said "I want to be alone." I only said "I want to be left alone." There is all the difference.
Greta Garbo
I don't know much about being a millionaire but I'll bet I'd be darling at it.
Dorothy Parker
I don't deserve this but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either.
Jack Benny
He looked at me as if I was a side dish he hadn't ordered.
Ring Lardner
Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome.
Oscar Levant
Brevity is the soul of lingerie.
Dorothy Parker
There ain't no answer. There ain't gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer.
Gertrude Stein
Only two things are infinite the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former.
Albert Einstein
One bliss for which there is no match is when you itch to up and scratch.
Ogden Nash
I have admired W.C. Fields since the day he advanced upon Baby LeRoy with an ice pick. Any man who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.
Leo Rosten
No Groucho is not my real name. I am breaking it in for a friend.
Groucho Marx
Nothing endures but personal qualities.
Walt Whitman