Dorothy Parker Quotes

1893-1967, American Humorous Writer
quotes
32
topics
12
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“Work is the province of cattle.”
Work
“Brevity is the soul of lingerie.”
VerifiedCaption written for Vogue 1916 · evidenceDress
“Scratch a lover, and find a foe.”
Lovers
“She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.”
Acting and Actors
“They sicken at the calm that know the storm.”
Adversity
“Sorrow is tranquility remembered in emotion.”
Sorrow
“Good work, Mary. We all knew you had it in you.”
Pregnancy
“It's not the tragedies that kill us, it's the messes.”
VerifiedInterview, The Paris Review (Summer 1956) · evidenceTragedies
“Where's the man could ease a heart, like a satin gown?”
Dress
“I shall stay the way I am because I do not give a damn.”
Apathy
“You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think.”
Leaders and Leadership
“Enjoyed it! One more drink and I'd have been under the host.”
Parties
“I don't care what anybody says about me as long as it isn't true.”
Gossip
“Gratitude -- the meanest and most sniveling attribute in the world.”
Gratitude
“Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.”
Wit
“I require three things in a man. He must be handsome, ruthless, and stupid.”
Men
“The two most beautiful words in the English language are: ''Check Enclosed.''”
Words
“This book is not to be tossed lightly aside, but to be hurled with great force.”
Books and Reading
“This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.”
MisattributedNot by Dorothy Parker. Earliest known source: Bill Miller, To You I Tell It (1929). · evidenceCritics and Criticism
“Hollywood money isn't money. It's congealed snow, melts in your hand, and there you are.”
Hollywood
“He [Robert Benchley] and I had an office so tiny that an inch smaller and it would have been adultery.”
Office
“Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch is, and it darts away.”
Love
“The best way to keep children at home is to make the home a pleasant atmosphere and let the air out of the tires.”
Children
“Drink, and dance and laugh and lie, love the reeling midnight through, for tomorrow we shall die! (But, alas, we never do.)”
Verified"The Flaw in Paganism" in Death and Taxes (1931) · evidenceParties
“Those who have mastered etiquette, who are entirely, impeccably right, would seem to arrive at a point of exquisite dullness.”
Etiquette
“Why is it no one ever sent me yet one perfect limousine, do you suppose? Ah no, it's always just my luck to get one perfect rose.”
Giving
“There's a hell of a distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words.”
VerifiedInterview, The Paris Review (Summer 1956) · evidenceWit
“All those writers who write about their own childhood! Gentle God, if I wrote about mine you wouldn't sit in the same room with me.”
VerifiedInterview in The Paris Review, Issue #13 (Summer 1956) · evidenceAutobiography
“Razors pain you; rivers are damp; acids stain you; and drugs cause cramp. Guns aren't lawful; nooses give; gas smells awful; you might as well live.”
Suicide