Quotes from Elsie de Wolfe

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.

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.

I am going to make everything around me beautiful - that will be my life.

What is the goal? A house that is like the life that goes with it, a house that gives us beauty as we understand it- and beauty of a nobler kind that we may grow to understand.

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

I believe in plenty of optimism and white paint, comfortable chairs with lights beside them, open fires on the hearth and flowers wherever they "belong," mirrors and sunshine in all rooms.

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.

I am going to make everything around me beautiful - that will be my life.

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

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.

I'm going to make everything around me beautiful—that will be my life.

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

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

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.

Be pretty if you can be witty if you must be agreeable if it kills you.

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

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

The cardinal virtue of all beauty is restraint.

Simplicity, suitability and proportion.

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

Good dressing is largely a question of detail and accessories.

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

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