Ethel Barrymore Quotes & Sayings

Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. — Ethel Barrymore

For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of a Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of a MaCaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinocerus. — Ethel Barrymore

[At age 76:] A good life is like a good play
it has to have a satisfying and exciting third act. — Ethel Barrymore

The arts are not just instantaneous pleasure - if you don't like it, the artist is wrong. I belong to the generation which says if you don't like it, you don't understand and you ought to find out. — Ethel Barrymore

Fundamentally I feel that there is as much difference between the stage and the films as between a piano and a violin. Normally you can't become a virtuoso in both. — Ethel Barrymore

Is everybody happy? I want everybody to be happy. I know I'm happy. — Ethel Barrymore

I never let them cough. They wouldn't dare. — Ethel Barrymore

You must learn day by day, year by year to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens. — Ethel Barrymore

The best time to make friends is
before you need them. — Ethel Barrymore

That's all there is; there isn't any more. — Ethel Barrymore

You grow up the day you have your first real laugh
at yourself. — Ethel Barrymore

When life knocks you to your knees, and it will, why, get up! If it knocks you to your knees again, as it will, well, isn't that the best position from which to pray? — Ethel Barrymore

You grow up the day you have the first real laugh at yourself. — Ethel Barrymore

The face of Garbo is an Idea, that of Hepburn an Event. — Ethel Barrymore

[On Hollywood:] It looks, it feels, as though it had been invented by a Sixth Avenue peepshow man. — Ethel Barrymore

The great actors are the luminous ones. They are the great conductors of the stage. — Ethel Barrymore