Bette Davis

Bette Davis

26 quotes

Known primarily as an American actress, Bette Davis also happens to be one of the most quotable figures in our collection. Known for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, although her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas, their words carry the weight of lived experience. Our collection holds 37 quotes from Bette Davis, each offering a different angle on Work, Women, Marriage, Movies, and Men. Consider this gem from Bette Davis: "Brought up to respect the conventions, love had to end in marriage. I'm afraid it did."

“This has always been a motto of mine: Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.”

— Bette Davis

Work

All Quotes by Bette Davis

“I'd luv to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair.”

— Bette Davis

Funny

“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

Famous

“This has always been a motto of mine: Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.”

— Bette Davis

Work

“Brought up to respect the conventions, love had to end in marriage. I'm afraid it did.”

— Bette Davis

Funny

“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.”

— Bette Davis

Success

“A sure way to lose happiness, I found, is to want it at the expense of everything else.”

— Bette Davis

Happiness

“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

Marriage

“Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.”

— Bette Davis

Work

“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

Business

“Strong women only marry weak men.”

— Bette Davis

Men

“I work to stay alive.”

— Bette Davis

Work

“The best time I ever had with Joan Crawford was when I pushed her down the stairs in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”

— Bette Davis

Best

“Wave after wave of love flooded the stage and washed over me, the beginning of the one great durable romance of my life.”

— Bette Davis

Great

“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

Money

“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

Home

“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

Truth

“Sex is God's joke on human beings.”

— Bette Davis

God

“Old age is no place for sissies.”

— Bette Davis

Age

“An affair now and then is good for a marriage. It adds spice, stops it from getting boring... I ought to know.”

— Bette Davis

Marriage

“I don't take the movies seriously, and anyone who does is in for a headache.”

— Bette Davis

Movies