Quotations and phrases

A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up.
-- Mae West

A hard man is good to find.
-- Mae West

A man can be short and dumpy and getting bald but if he has fire, women will like him.
-- Mae West

A man has one hundred dollars and you leave him with two dollars, that's subtraction.
-- Mae West

A man in the house is worth two in the street.
-- Mae West

A man's kiss is his signature.
-- Mae West

A woman in love can't be reasonable - or she probably wouldn't be in love.
-- Mae West

All discarded lovers should be given a second chance, but with somebody else.
-- Mae West

An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.
-- Mae West

Any time you got nothing to do - and lots of time to do it - come on up.
-- Mae West

Any time you've got nothing to do and lots of time to do it come on up.
-- Mae West

Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.
-- Mae West

Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.
-- Mae West

Cultivate your curves - they may be dangerous but they won't be avoided.
-- Mae West

Don't keep a man guessing too long - he's sure to find the answer somewhere else.
-- Mae West

Don't marry a man to reform him - that's what reform schools are for.
-- Mae West

Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can't figure out what from.
-- Mae West

Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you.
-- Mae West

He who hesitates is a damned fool.
-- Mae West

He's the kind of man a woman would have to marry to get rid of.
-- Mae West

His mother should have thrown him out and kept the stork.
-- Mae West

I always say, keep a diary and someday it'll keep you.
-- Mae West

I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.
-- Mae West

I believe that it's better to be looked over than it is to be overlooked.
-- Mae West

I didn't discover curves; I only uncovered them.
-- Mae West

I enjoyed the courtroom as just another stage but not so amusing as Broadway.
-- Mae West

I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.
-- Mae West

I like a man who's good, but not too good - for the good die young, and I hate a dead one.
-- Mae West

I like restraint, if it doesn't go too far.
-- Mae West

I never loved another person the way I loved myself.
-- Mae West

I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.
-- Mae West

I only have 'yes' men around me. Who needs 'no' men?
-- Mae West

I only like two kinds of men, domestic and imported.
-- Mae West

I see you're a man with ideals. I better be going before you've still got them.
-- Mae West

I see you're a man with ideals. I guess I better be going while you've still got them.
-- Mae West

I speak two languages, Body and English.
-- Mae West

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
-- Mae West

I'd like to see Paris before I die. Philadelphia will do.
-- Mae West

I'll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.
-- Mae West

I'm a woman of very few words, but lots of action.
-- Mae West

I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing.
-- Mae West

I've been in more laps than a napkin.
-- Mae West

I've been things and seen places.
-- Mae West

If I asked for a cup of coffee, someone would search for the double meaning.
-- Mae West

It ain't no sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don't break any.
-- Mae West

It is better to be looked over than overlooked.
-- Mae West

It isn't what I do, but how I do it. It isn't what I say, but how I say it, and how I look when I do it and say it.
-- Mae West

It takes two to get one in trouble.
-- Mae West

It's hard to be funny when you have to be clean.
-- Mae West

It's not the men in my life that count, it's the life in my men.
-- Mae West

It's not the men in my life, but the life in my men.
-- Mae West

It's not what I do, but the way I do it. It's not what I say, but the way I say it.
-- Mae West

Keep a diary, and someday it'll keep you.
-- Mae West

Look your best - who said love is blind?
-- Mae West

Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache.
-- Mae West

Love isn't an emotion or an instinct - it's an art.
-- Mae West

Love thy neighbor - and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it will be that much easier.
-- Mae West

Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution.
-- Mae West

One and one is two, and two and two is four, and five will get you ten if you know how to work it.
-- Mae West

Opportunity knocks for every man, but you have to give a woman a ring.
-- Mae West

Personality is the glitter that sends your little gleam across the footlights and the orchestra pit into that big black space where the audience is.
-- Mae West

Personality is the most important thing to an actress's success.
-- Mae West

Personally, I like two types of men - domestic and foreign.
-- Mae West

Right now I think censorship is necessary; the things they're doing and saying in films right now just shouldn't be allowed. There's no dignity anymore and I think that's very important.
-- Mae West

Save a boyfriend for a rainy day - and another, in case it doesn't rain.
-- Mae West

Say what you want about long dresses, but they cover a multitude of shins.
-- Mae West

Sex is emotion in motion.
-- Mae West

She's the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong.
-- Mae West

Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I'm tired.
-- Mae West

The best way to hold a man is in your arms.
-- Mae West

The score never interested me, only the game.
-- Mae West

Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.
-- Mae West

To err is human, but it feels divine.
-- Mae West

Too much of a good thing can be taxing.
-- Mae West

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.
-- Mae West

Virtue has its own reward, but no sale at the box office.
-- Mae West

When choosing between two evils, I always like to pick the one I never tried before.
-- Mae West

When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before.
-- Mae West

When I'm good I'm very, very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better.
-- Mae West

When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad I'm better.
-- Mae West

When women go wrong, men go right after them.
-- Mae West

Whenever I'm caught between two evils, I take the one I've never tried.
-- Mae West

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.
-- Mae West

All quotations and phrases said by Mae West including famous quotes