[On the British Museum:] It was manifestly impossible to read all the books in that huge, gloomy structure, but I made a good try and accumulated a fund of useless information guaranteed to cast a pall over any dinner table. Elsa Maxwell More Quotes by Elsa Maxwell More Quotes From Elsa Maxwell Nothing spoils a good party like a genius. Elsa Maxwell intelligence party intellectual Laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can. Elsa Maxwell laughter happiness inspirational I make enemies deliberately. They are the sauce piquante to my dish of life. Elsa Maxwell dishes sauce enemy Serve the dinner backward, do anything - but for goodness sake, do something weird. Elsa Maxwell party cooking food Keep your talent in the dark and you'll never be insulted. Elsa Maxwell insulted talent dark Good manners - the longer I live the more convinced I am of it - are a priceless insurance against failure and loneliness. And anyone can have them. Elsa Maxwell priceless good-man loneliness the wealthy ... live in marble mausoleums surrounded by the suspicions and neuroses that have replaced the medieval moats which once isolated so-called aristocrats from reality. Elsa Maxwell moats neurosis reality Fight fire with fire. If you must have bores, always put them together or at the same table ... bores have an effervescent chemical reaction on one another at a party. They invariably have a marvelous time trading banalities in the absence of competition. Clichés roll trippingly off the tongue like sparkling epigrams and trite observations acquire depth sinking into receptive minds. Elsa Maxwell party fighting fire Intolerance of mediocrity has been the main prop of my independence. Elsa Maxwell intolerance independence mediocrity Bores put you in a mental cemetery while you are still walking. Elsa Maxwell bores cemetery stills Seeing unhappiness in the marriage of friends, I was content to have chosen music and laughter as a substitute for a husband. Elsa Maxwell wedding marriage happiness Most rich people are the poorest people I know. Elsa Maxwell rich knows people Protocol may be defined as the code of etiquette which protects royalty from the competition of intellectual and social superiors. Elsa Maxwell competition intellectual may Good manners spring from just one thing - kind impulses. Elsa Maxwell good-man kind spring Under pressure, people admit to murder, setting fire to the village church or robbing a bank, but never to being bores. Elsa Maxwell church fire people Only those who have earned leisure know how to use it profitably. Elsa Maxwell leisure know-how use [On Hollywood:] I had gone there expecting to see parties that reflected the stock-in-trade of the movies - glamour. Instead, I found the same attitude toward parties that European peasants had for baths. It was something to be done methodically every Saturday night. Elsa Maxwell party attitude night I don't hate anyone. I dislike. But my dislike is the equivalent of anyone else's hate. Elsa Maxwell dont-hate hate literature Etiquette-a fancy word for simple kindness. Elsa Maxwell fancy simple kindness Someone has said that life itself is a party: you join after it's started and you leave before it's finished. Elsa Maxwell aging party literature
