Bette Davis was an American actress who was born on April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts. She is considered to be one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history, known for her intense and powerful performances on screen.
Davis began her acting career in the theater, and made her film debut in the 1931 movie “Bad Sister”. She quickly became known for her strong performances, and earned her first Academy Award nomination for her role in the 1934 film “Of Human Bondage”. She went on to receive a total of 10 Academy Award nominations during her career, winning two for her roles in “Dangerous” (1935) and “Jezebel” (1938).
You May Also Like: Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes (Pessimistic Views On Life)
Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Davis appeared in a number of successful films, including “Dark Victory” (1939), “The Letter” (1940), and “Now, Voyager” (1942). She also became known for her feisty personality and independent spirit, and famously clashed with studio executives over her contracts and the roles she was offered.
In the 1950s, Davis continued to work in film, and also made several appearances on television. She received critical acclaim for her performance in the 1950 movie “All About Eve”, and earned another Academy Award nomination for her role in the 1962 film “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”.
Davis continued to work in film and television throughout the 1960s and 1970s, but her health began to decline in the 1980s. She died on October 6, 1989, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, at the age of 81.
Similar Post: Audre Lorde Quotes About Racism, Sexism & Homophobia
Bette Davis is remembered as one of the most talented and influential actresses in Hollywood history, and her legacy continues to inspire actors and filmmakers today.
The timeless wisdom and captivating charisma of Bette Davis through these Quotes Worth Reading and Sharing.
Famous Bette Davis Quotes
1. “My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today; I knew it then as purpose.”
2. “I have been uncompromising, peppery, intractable, monomaniacal, tactless, volatile, and off times disagreeable. I suppose I am larger than life.”
3. “Oh Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars. – Now, Voyager”
4. “I’d like ta kiss ya, but I just washed my hair.”
5. “Getting old ain’t for sissies.”
6. “I survived because I was tougher than anybody else.”
7. “It’s better to be HATED for who you ARE then Loved for who you ARE NOT!”
8. “Old age is no place for sissies!”
9. “I am doomed to an eternity of compulsive work. No set goal achieved satisfies. Success only breeds a new goal. The golden apple devoured has seeds. It is endless.”
10. “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.”
Check Out: B. F. Skinner Quotes on Learning
11. “The weak are the most treacherous of us all. They come to the strong and drain them. They are bottomless. They are insatiable. They are always parched and always bitter. They are everyone’s concern and like vampires they suck our life’s blood.”
12. “Funny business, a woman’s career. The things you drop on your way up the ladder– so you can move faster– you forget you’ll need them when you go back to being a woman. That’s one career all females have in common whether we like it or not. Being a woman. Sooner or later, we’ve got to work at it, no matter what other careers we’ve had or wanted. And in the last analysis nothing is any good unless you can look up just before dinner– or turn around in bed– and there he is. Without that you’re not a woman. You’re someone with a French provincial office– or a book full of clippings. But you’re not a woman. Slow curtain. The end. (from “All About Eve”)”
13. “In this business, until you’re known as a monster, you’re not a star”
14. “I’d like to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair.”
15. “Old Age Ain’t For Sissies. Taken from a Bette Davis quote.”
16. “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,”
17. “I think I showed my restraint by not pulling her hair out by the roots.”
18. “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.”
19. “Anything cruel I do is mental, not physical”
20. “I would rather have a go at something I feel, and be hurt, than always be protecting myself—that way one does not really live.”
More Quotes: Babe Ruth Quotes About Confidence And Love Of The Game
21. “I gave her a look that would exterminate lice.”
22. “One nurse told me to say please when I asked her to do something. She should consider herself luck to be in one piece today.”
23. “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.”
24. “When a man gives his opinion, he’s a man; when a woman gives her opinion, she’s a bitch.”
25. “Thirty-five is the age for a woman, in my opinion. Oh—to stay thirty-five forever.”
26. “You know what nostalgia is, don’t you? It’s basically a matter of recalling the fun without reliving the pain.”
26. “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.”
27. “You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good . . . Joan Crawford is dead. Good.”
28. “If everyone likes you, you’re not doing it right.”
29. “There comes a time in every woman’s life when the only thing that helps is a glass of champagne.”
30. “You will never be happier than you expect. To change your happiness, change your expectation.”
Find More: Bell Hooks Quotes On Race, Gender And Sexuality
31. “Getting old is not for sissies.”
32. “If everybody likes you, you’re pretty dull.”
33. “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.”
34. “Life is the past, the present and the perhaps.”
35. “If you want a thing done well, get a couple of old broads to do it.”
36. “There may be a heaven, but if Joan Crawford is there, I’m not going.”
37. “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.”
38. “I want to die with my high heels on, still in action.”
39. “The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he’s dead.”
40. “If you’ve never been hated by your child, you’ve never been a parent.”
Interesting Quotes: Benito Mussolini Quotes About War And Nationalism
41. “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.”
42. “The secret of marriage is: separate bedrooms and separate bathrooms.”
43. “Being called very, very difficult is the beginning of success. Until you’re called very, very difficult you’re really nobody at all.”
44. “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.”
45. “I’m the nicest goddamn dame that ever lived.”
46. “I wouldn’t piss on Joan Crawford if she were on fire.”
47. “There was more good acting at Hollywood parties than ever appeared on the screen.”
48. “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.”
49. “Success is built on disappointment, and disappointment is inherent in all success.”
50. “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.”
More Thoughts: Blaise Pascal Quotes About Human Nature And Faith
51. “It’s true we don’t know what we’ve got until it’s 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.”
52. “Your luck is how you treat people.”
53. “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night! – As Margo Channing in All About Eve”
54. “If everybody likes you, you are not a very interesting person.”
55. “A sure way to lose happiness, I found, is to want it at the expense of everything else.”
56. “Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.”
57. “One begins to realize that one is getting old when the birthday candles weigh more than the cake.”
58. “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.”
59. “There is a certain ecstasy in wanting things you can’t get.”
60. “You know what I’m going to have on my gravestone? ‘She did it the hard way.’”
Wise Words: Bob Dylan Quotes On Freedom, Justice And Humanity
61. “I am a woman meant for a man, but I never found a man who could compete.”
62. “You should know me well enough by now to know I don’t ask for things I don’t think I can get.”
63. “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.”
64. “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.”
65. “One can make more enemies as a female with a brain, I think.”
66. “It’s a rare man who can stand being around an intelligent woman, let alone married to her.”
67. “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.”
68. “[On gay men:] Let me say, a more artistic, appreciative group of people for the arts does not exist … They are more knowledgeable, more loving of the arts. They make the average male look stupid.”
69. “You’ve got to know someone pretty well to hate them.”
70. “The best time I ever had with Joan Crawford was when I pushed her down the stairs in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”
Click For More Quotes: C. S. Lewis Quotes About Faith, Love & The Human Experience
71. “Success only breeds a new goal”
72. “There’s only one way to work — like hell.”
73. “You can lose everything but you can’t lose your talent!”
74. “The secret of marriage is separate bedrooms and separate bathrooms.”
75. “Good actors I’ve worked with all started out making faces in a mirror, and you keep making faces all your life.”
76. “Oh, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We’ve already got the stars.”
77. “I often think that a slightly exposed shoulder emerging from a long satin nightgown packs more sex than two naked bodies in bed.”
78. “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.”
79. “She’s the original good time who was had by all.”
80. “People often become actresses because of something they dislike about themselves: They pretend they are someone else.”
Read Also: Carl Sagan Quotes About Cosmos, Universe And Science
81. “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.”
82. “People stood on their chairs, cheering and waving. And it was all for me! Waves of love flooded the stage and washed over me. I started to cry. The sweetness of such a moment is impossible to describe. One is both lover and beloved. … I’d found the one true, enduring romance of my life.”
83. “Without discipline and detachment, an actor is an emotional slob, spilling his insides out. This abandonment is having an unfortunate vogue. It is tasteless, formless, absurd. Without containment, there is no art. All this vomiting and wheezing and bursting at the seams is no more great acting than the convulsions of raving maniacs.”
84. “Home is where you go to when you’ve nowhere to go.”
85. “Never, never trust anyone who asks for white wine. It means they’re phonies.”
86. “Temperament is something that is an integral part of the artist. Not temper, temperament. There is a vast difference.”
87. “Strong women only marry weak men.”
88. “Discipline is a symbol of caring to a child. He needs guidance. If there is love, there is no such thing as being too tough with a child. A parent must also not be afraid to hang himself. If you have never been hated by your child, you have never been a parent.”
89. “It’s better to be hated for who you are, than to be loved for someone you’re not”
90. “I want to die with my high heels on, still in action”
You May Also Like: Colin Powell Motivational Quotes About Leadership
91. “I love my profession. I would never stop. Relax? I relax when I work. It’s my life”
92. “Brought up to respect the conventions, love had to end in marriage. I’m afraid it did”
93. “It’s a sign of your worth sometimes, if you’re hated by the right people”
94. “If everyone likes you, you’re not doing it right”
95. “I am a woman meant for a man, but I never found a man who could compete”
96. “I was just sure of myself. This is and always has been an unforgivable quality to the unsure”
97. “Until you’re known as a monster you’re not a star”
98. “There was more good acting at Hollywood parties than ever appeared on the screen”
99. “I’m the nicest goddamn dame that ever lived”
100. “Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work”