Quotes from Cornelia Otis Skinner

That amenity which the French have developed into a great art . . . conversation.

We all have our little illusions about our own mental abilities.

It's as though some poor devil were to set out for a large dinner party with the knowledge that the following morning he would be hearing exactly what each of the other guests thought of him.

Emily and I have now reached the time in life when not only do we lie about our ages, we forget what we've said they are.

There are compensations for growing older. One is the realization that to be sporting isn't at all necessary. It is a great relief to reach this stage of wisdom.

Women keep a special corner of their hearts for sins they have never committed.

Women's virtue is man's greatest invention.

Woman's virtue is man's greatest invention.

It is disturbing to discover in oneself these curious revelations of the validity of the Darwinian theory. If it is true that we have sprung from the ape, there are occasions when my own spring appears not to have been very far.

To cement a new friendship, especially between foreigners or persons of a different social world, a spark with which both were secretly charged must fly from person to person, and cut across the accidents of place and time.

Woman's virtue is man's greatest invention.

Women keep a special corner of their hearts for sins they have never committed.

To Mr. Blot, who went through life an unconscious example of the raison d'être of the British Empire, a shipwreck was merely one of the many things to be ignored. His was a calming influence.

My parents took us to dinner but we came back early. Tomorrow was to be a day of days and we must get a good night's rest. Nothing, Emily said, was a greater aid to beauty than a long slumber; the eyes were made clear and sparkling and the skin like tinted porcelain.

To cement a new friendship, especially between foreigners or persons of a different social world, a spark with which both were secretly charged must fly from person to person, and cut across the accidents of place and time.

Women have a special corner of their hearts for sins they have never committed.