Serve the dinner backward, do anything - but for goodness sake, do something weird. Elsa Maxwell More Quotes by Elsa Maxwell More Quotes From Elsa Maxwell Nothing spoils a good party like a genius. Elsa Maxwell intelligencepartyintellectual Laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can. Elsa Maxwell laughterhappinessinspirational I make enemies deliberately. They are the sauce piquante to my dish of life. Elsa Maxwell dishessauceenemy Keep your talent in the dark and you'll never be insulted. Elsa Maxwell insultedtalentdark 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 pricelessgood-manloneliness 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 moatsneurosisreality 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 partyfightingfire Intolerance of mediocrity has been the main prop of my independence. Elsa Maxwell intoleranceindependencemediocrity Bores put you in a mental cemetery while you are still walking. Elsa Maxwell borescemeterystills Seeing unhappiness in the marriage of friends, I was content to have chosen music and laughter as a substitute for a husband. Elsa Maxwell weddingmarriagehappiness Most rich people are the poorest people I know. Elsa Maxwell richknowspeople Protocol may be defined as the code of etiquette which protects royalty from the competition of intellectual and social superiors. Elsa Maxwell competitionintellectualmay Good manners spring from just one thing - kind impulses. Elsa Maxwell good-mankindspring Under pressure, people admit to murder, setting fire to the village church or robbing a bank, but never to being bores. Elsa Maxwell churchfirepeople Only those who have earned leisure know how to use it profitably. Elsa Maxwell leisureknow-howuse [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 partyattitudenight I don't hate anyone. I dislike. But my dislike is the equivalent of anyone else's hate. Elsa Maxwell dont-hatehateliterature Etiquette-a fancy word for simple kindness. Elsa Maxwell fancysimplekindness Someone has said that life itself is a party: you join after it's started and you leave before it's finished. Elsa Maxwell agingpartyliterature Anatomize the character of a successful hostess and the knife will lay bare the fact that she owes her position to one of three things: either she is liked, or she is feared, or she is important. Elsa Maxwell knivessuccessfulcharacter
