Margot Asquith Quotes & Sayings

Truthfulness with me is hardly a virtue. I cannot discriminate between truths that and those that don't need to be told. — Margot Asquith

Haunted from my early youth by the transitoriness and pathos of life, I was aware that it is not enough to say "I am doing no harm," I ought to be testing myself daily, and asking myself what I am really achieving. — Margot Asquith

The spirit is an inward flame; a lamp the world blows upon but never puts out. — Margot Asquith

I was born in the country of Hogg and Scott between the Yarrow and the Tweed, in the year 1864. — Margot Asquith

Lloyd George? There is no Lloyd George. There is a marvellous brain; but if you were to shut him in a room and look through the keyhole there would be nobody there. — Margot Asquith

The first element of greatness is fundamental humbleness (this should not be confused with servility); the second is freedom from self; the third is intrepid courage, which, taken in its widest interpretation, generally goes with truth; and the fourth-the power of love-although I have put it last, is the rarest. — Margot Asquith

I have no face, only two profiles clapped together. — Margot Asquith

Symbols are the imaginative signposts of life. — Margot Asquith

My father's nature turned out no waste product; he had none of that useless stuff in him that lies in heaps near factories. He took his own happiness with him. — Margot Asquith

It is not dying, but living, that is a preparation for Death. — Margot Asquith

[To her host upon leaving a party:] Don't think it hasn't been charming, because it hasn't. — Margot Asquith

I do not say I was ever what I would call "plain," but I have the sort of face that bores me when I see it on other people. — Margot Asquith

The ingrained idea that, because there is no king and they despise titles, the Americans are a free people is pathetically untrue ... There is a perpetual interference with personal liberty over there that would not be tolerated in England for a week. — Margot Asquith

My sort of looks are of the kind that bore me when I see them on other people. — Margot Asquith

She spends her day powdering her face till she looks like a bled pig. — Margot Asquith

There is nothing more perplexing in life than to know at what point you should surrender your intellect to your faith. — Margot Asquith

He could never see a belt without hitting below it. — Margot Asquith

The Almighty is a wonderful handicapper: He will not give us everything. — Margot Asquith

If you have been sunned through and through like an apricot on a wall from your earliest days, you are oversensitive to any withdrawal of heat. — Margot Asquith

I have been devoured all my life by an incurable and burning impatience: and to this day find all oratory, biography, operas, films, plays, books, and persons, too long. — Margot Asquith

To marry a man out of pity is folly; and, if you think you are going to influence the kind of fellow who has never had a chance, poor devil, you are profoundly mistaken. One can only influence the strong characters in life, not the weak; and it is the height of vanity to suppose that you can make an honest man of anyone. — Margot Asquith

If Kitchener was not a great man, he was, at least, a great poster. — Margot Asquith

[Jean Harlow] 'Say - aren't you Margot Asquith?' (pronouncing the hard 't')
[Margot Asquith] 'Yes Dear, But the 't' is silent, as in Harlow. — Margot Asquith

Convictions no doubt have to be modified or expanded to meet changing conditions but ... to be a reliable political leader sooner or later your anchors must hold fast where other men's drag. — Margot Asquith

[To Jean Harlow, who repeatedly mispronounced her first name:] No, no, Jean. The t is silent, as in Harlow. — Margot Asquith

It is always dangerous to generalize, but the American people, while infinitely generous, are a hard and strong race and, but for the few cemeteries I have seen, I am inclined to think they never die. — Margot Asquith

The Bible tells us to forgive our enemies, not our friends — Margot Asquith

There are big men, men of intellect, intellectual men, men of talent and men of action; but the great man is difficult to find, and it needs
apart from discernment
a certain greatness to find him. — Margot Asquith

What a pity, when Christopher Columbus discovered America, that he ever mentioned it. — Margot Asquith

Rich men's houses are seldom beautiful, rarely comfortable, and never original. It is a constant source of surprise to people of moderate means to observe how little a big fortune contributes to Beauty. — Margot Asquith

[On spiritualism:] I always knew the living talked rot, but it's nothing to the rot the dead talk. — Margot Asquith

He could not see a belt without hitting below it. — Margot Asquith

All I can say about my mind is that, like a fire carefully laid by a good housemaid, it is one that any match will light ... — Margot Asquith

His modesty amounts to deformity. — Margot Asquith

The capacity to suffer varies more than anything that I have observed in human nature. — Margot Asquith

She tells enough white lies to ice a wedding cake. — Margot Asquith

From the happy expression on their faces you might have supposed that they welcomed the war. I have met with men who loved stamps, and stones, and snakes, but I could not imagine any man loving war. — Margot Asquith

Till I see money spent on the betterment of man instead of on his idleness and destruction, I shall not believe in any perfect form of government ... — Margot Asquith

The power to love what is purely abstract is given to few. — Margot Asquith

Rumor is untraceable, incalculable, and infectious. — Margot Asquith

My dear old friend King George V told me he would never have died but for that vile doctor, Lord Dawson of Penn. — Margot Asquith

I have always wanted to be a man, if only for the reason that I would like to have gauged the value of my intellect. — Margot Asquith

Although I am not stupid, the mathematical side of my brain is like dumb notes upon a damaged piano. — Margot Asquith

It is easier to influence strong than weak characters in life. — Margot Asquith

The announcement that you are going to tell a good story (and the chuckle that precedes it) is always a dangerous opening. — Margot Asquith

Lord Birkenhead is very clever but sometimes his brains go to his head. — Margot Asquith

[On Austen Chamberlain:] He is more loyal to his friends than to his convictions. — Margot Asquith

Too much brilliance has its disadvantages, and misplaced wit may raise a laugh, but often beheads a topic of profound interest. — Margot Asquith

He has a brilliant mind until he makes it up. — Margot Asquith

You can do something with talent, but nothing with genius ... — Margot Asquith