Elsie De Wolfe Quotes

I am going in now for interior decoration. By that I mean supplying objets d'art and giving advice regarding the decoration of their houses to wealthy persons who do not have the time, inclination, nor culture to do such work for themselves. It is nothing new. Women have done the same thing before.

My business is to preach to you the beauty of suitability.

When one begins to think of oneself as growing old, one is already old.

It does not matter whether one paints a picture, writes a poem, or carves a statue - simplicity is the mark of a master-hand ...

It is the personality of the mistress that the home expresses. Men are forever guests in our homes, no matter how much happiness they may find there.

Don't make each room a different color in a small apartment or you'll make yourself nervous.

[At first sight of the Acropolis:] It's beige! My color!

You will express yourself in your house whether you want to or not.

I opened the doors and windows of America, and let the air and sunshine in.

I believe in plenty of optimism and white paint.

You can't take it with you. There are no pockets in a shroud.

No one chair should be isolated ...

Eating outdoors makes for good health and long life and good temper, everyone knows that.

Good dressing is largely a question of detail and accessories.

I was not ugly. I might never be anything for men to lose their heads about, but I need never again be ugly. This knowledge was like a song within me. Suddenly it all came together. If you were healthy, fit, and well-dressed, you could be attractive.

You will soon find that your joy in your home is growing, and that you have a source of happiness within yourself that you had not suspected.

This is the age of the apartment. Not only in the great cities, but in the smaller centers of civilization the apartment has come to stay ... A decade ago the apartment was considered a sorry makeshift in America, though it has been successful abroad for more years than you would believe.

I can't paint. I can't write. I can't sing. But I can decorate and run a house, and light it, and heat it, and have it like a living thing.

When I am no longer being copied, I shall know that I am a back number ... the fear of being copied is often the characteristic of the meager imagination.

The cardinal virtue of all beauty is restraint.

I was born with the courage to live. Only those are unwise who have never dared to be fools.

No, I don't take soup. You can't build a meal on a lake.

Be pretty if you can, be witty if you must, but be gracious if it kills you.

We cannot do better than to accept the standards of other times, and to adapt them to our uses.

Never, under any circumstance, do I touch soup, as I do not believe in building a meal on a lake.