Sarah Bernhardt Quotes & Sayings

It is in spending oneself that one becomes rich. — Sarah Bernhardt

The monster of advertisement ... is a sort of octopus with innumerable tentacles. It throws out to right and left, in front and behind, its clammy arms, and gathers in, through its thousand little suckers, all the gossip and slander and praise afloat ... — Sarah Bernhardt

Once the curtain is raised, the actor is ceases to belong to himself. He belongs to his character, to his author, to his public. He must do the impossible to identify himself with the first, not to betray the second, and not to disappoint the third. — Sarah Bernhardt

Although all new ideas are born in France, they are not readily adopted there. It seems that they must first commence to prosper in a foreign country. — Sarah Bernhardt

A defective voice will always preclude an artist from achieving the complete development of his art, however intelligent he may be ... The voice is an instrument which the artist must learn to use with suppleness and sureness, as if it were a limb. — Sarah Bernhardt

I refuse the title of artist to those who owe their reputations to a physical deformity. I regard them as buffoons. — Sarah Bernhardt

Oscar Wilde: 'Do you mind if I smoke?' Sarah Bernhardt: 'I don't care if you burn.' — Sarah Bernhardt

Energy creates energy. It is by spending myself that I become rich. — Sarah Bernhardt

We ought to hate very rarely, as it is too fatiguing; remain indifferent to a great deal, forgive often and never forget. — Sarah Bernhardt

The theatre is the involuntary reflex of the ideas of the crowd. — Sarah Bernhardt

Each action of the actor on the stage should be the visible concomitant of his thoughts. — Sarah Bernhardt

We must live for the few who know and appreciate us, who judge and absolve us, and for whom we have the same affection and indulgence. The rest I look upon as a mere crowd, lively or sad, loyal or corrupt, from whom there is nothing to be expected but fleeting emotions, either pleasant or unpleasant, which leave no trace behind them. — Sarah Bernhardt

What matters poverty? What matters anything to him who is enamoured of our art? Does he not carry in himself every joy and every beauty? — Sarah Bernhardt

Art is not about something, Art is something — Sarah Bernhardt

The artist's personality must be left in his dressing-room; his soul must be denuded of its own sensations and clothed with the base or noble qualities he is called upon to exhibit ... [he] must leave behind him the cares and vexations of life, throw aside his personality for several hours, and move in the dream of another life, forgetting everything. — Sarah Bernhardt

Your words are my food, your breath my wine. You are everything to me. — Sarah Bernhardt

Those who know the joys and miseries of celebrities when they have passed the age of forty know how to defend themselves. — Sarah Bernhardt

One should hate very little, because it's extremely fatiguing. One should despise much, forgive often and never forget. Pardon does not bring with it forgetfulness; at least not for me. — Sarah Bernhardt

Legend remains victorious in spite of history. — Sarah Bernhardt

[When asked at age 79 why her Paris apartment was located up many flights of stairs at the top of the building:] It's the only way I can still make the hearts of men beat faster. — Sarah Bernhardt

To be a good actor ... it is necessary to have a firmly tempered soul, to be surprised at nothing, to resume each minute the laborious task that has barely just been finished. — Sarah Bernhardt

I have often been asked why I am so fond of playing male parts. As a matter of fact, it is not male parts, but male brains that I prefer. — Sarah Bernhardt

I adore Chicago. It is the pulse of America. — Sarah Bernhardt

Me pray? Never! I'm an atheist. — Sarah Bernhardt

You must have this charm to reach the pinnacle. It is made of everything and of nothing, the striving will, the look, the walk, the proportions of the body, the sound of the voice, the ease of the gestures. It is not at all necessary to be handsome or to be pretty; all that is needful is charm. — Sarah Bernhardt

I do love cricket - it's so very English. — Sarah Bernhardt

Alas, we are the victims of advertisement. Those who taste the joys and sorrows of fame when they have passed forty, know how to look after themselves. They know what is concealed beneath the flowers, and what the gossip, the calumnies, and the praise are worth. But as for those who win fame when they are twenty, they know nothing, and are caught up in the whirlpool. — Sarah Bernhardt

The truth, the absolute truth, is that the chief beauty for the theatre consists in fine bodily proportions. — Sarah Bernhardt

I have, thanks to my travels, added to my stock all the superstitions of other countries. I know them all now, and in any critical moment of my life, they all rise up in armed legions for or against me. — Sarah Bernhardt

The actor is too prone to exaggerate his powers; he wants to play Hamlet when his appearance is more suitable to King Lear. — Sarah Bernhardt

He who is incapable of feeling strong passions, of being shaken by anger, of living in every sense of the word, will never be a good actor. — Sarah Bernhardt

What would life be without art? Science prolongs life. To consist of what-eating, drinking, and sleeping? What is the good of living longer if it is only a matter of satisfying the requirements that sustain life? All this is nothing without the charm of art. — Sarah Bernhardt

The dramatic art would appear to be rather a feminine art; it contains in itself all the artifices which belong to the province ofwoman: the desire to please, facility to express emotions and hide defects, and the faculty of assimilation which is the real essence of woman. — Sarah Bernhardt

For the theatre one needs long arms ... an artiste with short arms can never make a fine gesture. — Sarah Bernhardt

If I have a foreign accent - which I much regret - it is cosmopolitan, but not Teutonic. I am a daughter of the great Jewish race, and my somewhat uncultivated language is the outcome of our enforced wanderings. — Sarah Bernhardt

Permanent success cannot be achieved except by incessant intellectual labour, always inspired by the ideal. — Sarah Bernhardt