Bette Davis Quotes

Getting old ain't for sissies.

When a man gives his opinion, he's a man; when a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch.

When someone says, “Happy birthday and many happy returns of the day,” I usually say, “If God takes up my option.” In the motion picture business there were once options, usually yearly. If taken up, your contract was extended for another year by the studio. It is appalling to realize that God has taken up my option for seventy-eight years.

It has been my experience that one cannot, in any shape or form, depend on human relations for any lasting reward. It is only work that truly satisfies.

I have been uncompromising, peppery, intractable, monomaniacal, tactless, volatile, and oftentimes disagreeable... I suppose I'm larger than life.

To look back is to relax one's vigil.

My energies knew no bounds and I became more and more interested in civic causes, the first of which was The Tailwaggers. It was an organization that cared for abandoned and lost dogs. Its English progenitor had been started by the Duke of Windsor — now married to the lady at King’s Bench. A lifelong dog lover, I became president of the group and during my tenure of office we trained dogs for the blind. The work became infinitely satisfying and accomplished a twofold purpose. In order to raise money,

I survived because I was tougher than anybody else.

If you have never been hated by your child, you have never been a parent.

Getting old is not for sissies.

Pleasure of love lasts but a moment, Pain of love lasts a lifetime.

Thirty-five is the age for a woman, in my opinion. Oh — to stay thirty-five forever.

Men become much more attractive when they start looking older. But it doesn't do much for women, though we do have an advantage: make-up.

Miss Bankhead isn't well enough known nationally to warrant my imitating her. (In response to accusations she imitated Bankhead in the role of Margo Channing in All about Eve. Bankhead resented Davis for the perceived imitation, which she considered mocking, and for portraying her Broadway Roles on film [Dark Victory, Jezebel, The Little Foxes]. This comment is unusual in that Davis usually tried to deflate the myth [started by Tallulah for amusement and publicity] of any sort of conflict between them, instead expressing her admiration for Bankhead. Similarly, when Bankhead was asked to do an imitation of Davis, she said "Why should I dahling, she's been imitating me long enough". Before candidly remarking "But really, it's been sheer coincidence that Bette's been playing the leading roles in films like Dark Victory. I really admire her very much.")

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.