Mary Jane “Mae” West was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy sexual independence, and her lighthearted bawdy double entendres often delivered in a husky contralto voice. She was active in vaudeville and on stage in New York City before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the film industry. These Mae West Quotes will motivate you.
Best Mae West Quotes
- “When I’m good, I’m very good. But when I’m bad I’m better.” ~ Mae West
- “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” ~ Mae West
- “Well behaved women do not make history.” ~ Mae West
- “Men are like linoleum floors. Lay ’em right and you can walk all over them for years.” ~ Mae West
- “I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.” ~ Mae West
- “Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” ~ Mae West
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“Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.” ~ Mae West
- “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.” ~ Mae West
- “Women are like roads. The more curves they have, the more dangerous they are.” ~ Mae West
- “Flattery will get you everywhere.” ~ Mae West
- “I’ll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.” ~ Mae West
- “Positive thoughts generate positive feelings and attract positive life experiences. You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” ~ Mae West
- “Your real security is yourself. You know you can do it, and they can’t ever take that away from you.” ~ Mae West
- “I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.” ~ Mae West
- “I believe that one day the world will judge the witch hunt against homosexuals just as harshly as it judges the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust.” ~ Mae West
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“Women with pasts interest men because they hope history will repeat itself.” ~ Mae West
- “Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I’m tired.” ~ Mae West
- “We’re intellectual opposites. Well, I’m intellectual and you’re opposite.” ~ Mae West
- “For a long time I was ashamed of the way I lived. Did I reform, you ask? No. I’m not ashamed anymore.” ~ Mae West
- “You are never too old to become younger!” ~ Mae West
- “Marriage is a great institution, but I’m not ready for an institution.” ~ Mae West
- “There are no good girls gone wrong – just bad girls found out.” ~ Mae West’
- “Everything’s in the mind. That’s where it all starts. Knowing what you want is the first step toward getting it.” ~ Mae West
- “To err is human, but it feels divine.” ~ Mae West
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“The best way to behave is to misbehave.” ~ Mae West
- “Don’t keep a man guessing too long – he’s sure to find the answer somewhere else.” ~ Mae West
- “Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.” ~ Mae West
- “It’s not what you can do, but the way you do it that counts.” ~ Mae West
- “JUDGE: Are you trying to show contempt for this court? MAE WEST: I was doin’ my best to hide it.” ~ Mae West
- “I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.” ~ Mae West
- “I don’t like myself, I’m crazy about myself.” ~ Mae West
- “I wrote the story myself. It’s all about a girl who lost her reputation but never missed it.” ~ Mae West
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“Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.” ~ Mae West
- “Words should be used as tools of communication and not as a substitute for action” ~ Mae West
- “Love is like a booger, you pick and pick at it. Then when you get it you wonder how to get rid of it.” ~ Mae West
- “When you get the personality, you don’t need the nudity.” ~ Mae West
- “The curve is more powerful than the sword.” ~ Mae West
- “It’s not the men in my life that count, it’s the life in my men.” ~ Mae West
- “Curve: The loveliest distance between two points.” ~ Mae West
- “The best way to hold a man is in your arms.” ~ Mae West
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“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.” ~ Mae West
- “A man can be short and dumpy and getting bald but if he has fire, women will like him.” ~ Mae West
- “I go for two kinds of men. The kind with muscles, and the kind without.” ~ Mae West]
- “A hard man is good to find.” ~ Mae West
- “Don’t cry for a man who’s left you–the next one may fall for your smile.” ~ Mae West
- “Give a man free hands, and you’ll know where to find them.” ~ Mae West
- “Sex with love is the greatest thing in life. But sex without love–that’s not so bad either.” ~ Mae West
- “A woman in love can’t be reasonable – or she probably wouldn’t be in love.” ~ Mae West
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“Ladies who play with fire must remember that smoke gets in their eyes.” ~ Mae West
- “Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me? (She made this remark in February 1936, at the railway station in Los Angeles upon her return from Chicago, when a Los Angeles police officer was assigned to escort her home)” ~ Mae West
- “Love thy neighbor – and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it will be that much easier.” ~ Mae West
- “Well, the end of another busy day. I can’t wait till I get back to bed. If that don’t work I’ll try to sleep.” ~ Mae West
- “Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can’t figure out what from.” ~ Mae West
- “One and one is two, and two and two is four, and five will get you ten if you know how to work it.” ~ Mae West’
- “It isn’t what I do, but how I do it. It isn’t what I say, but how I say it, and how I look when I do it and say it.” ~ Mae West
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“I have never loved a man as much as I have loved myself” ~ Mae West
- “You gotta get up early in the morning to catch a fox and stay up late at night to get a mink.” ~ Mae West
- “Save a boyfriend for a rainy day – and another, in case it doesn’t rain.” ~ Mae West
- “It’s hard to find a good man, but it’s good to find a hard one.” ~ Mae West
- “I have always felt a gift diamond shines so much better than one you buy for yourself.” ~ Mae West
- “Why don’t you come up and have a little … scotch and sofa?” ~ Mae West
- “I’m single because I was born that way.” ~ Mae West
- “Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache.” ~ Mae West
- “Cultivate your curves – they may be dangerous but they won’t be avoided.” ~ Mae West
- “A man has one hundred dollars and you leave him with two dollars, that’s subtraction.” ~ Mae West
