Mary Jane West, or Mae West to most people, was an American actress, comedian, playwright, singer, screenwriter, and a glamour icon.
Her entertainment career lasted for seven decades and was named 15th among the most celebrated female stars of classic American cinema by the American Film Institute. Aside from that, she was also known for her sharp wit and carefree sexual independence.
Mae West was undeniably one of the more controversial movie stars of her day and faced various problems, particularly with censorship. She even made comedy out of the conventional mores, and to their surprise, the Depression-era audience adored her for it.
When her cinematic spotlight ended, she then wrote plays, books, and continued to perform on-stage.
Some of her thoughts and quotations tackled the most pressing and sensitive issues in the wittiest way. Here are 70 of the best Mae West quotes and sayings about life, love, and more!
Mae West Quotes About Men & Women
1. “A man can be short and dumpy and getting bald but if he has fire, women will like him.”
2. “I only like two kinds of men, domestic and imported.”
3. “A dame that knows the ropes isn’t likely to get tied up.”
4. “She’s the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong.”
5. “A man has one hundred dollars and you leave him with two dollars, that’s subtraction.”
6. “He’s the kind of man a woman would have to marry to get rid of.”
7. “When women go wrong, men go right after them.”
8. “A man in the house is worth two in the street.”
9. “A woman in love can’t be reasonable – or she probably wouldn’t be in love.”
10. “A man’s kiss is his signature.”
11. “I only have ‘yes’ men around me. Who needs ‘no’ men?”
12. “The best way to hold a man is in your arms.”
13. “Don’t keep a man guessing too long – he’s sure to find the answer somewhere else.”
14. “Don’t marry a man to reform him – that’s what reform schools are for.”
15. “Give a man a free hand and he’ll run it all over you.”
16. “Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can’t figure out what from.”
17. “It’s not the men in my life that count, it’s the life in my men.”
Mae West Quotes About Life
1. “Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.”
2. “The score never interested me, only the game.”
3. “An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.”
4. “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.”
5. “Personality is the glitter that sends your little gleam across the footlights and the orchestra pit into that big black space where the audience is.”
6. “To err is human, but it feels divine.”
7. “He who hesitates is a damned fool.”
8. “I’ll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.”
9. “Cultivate your curves – they may be dangerous but they won’t be avoided.”
10. “Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.”
11. “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
Mae West Quotes About Love
1. “I never loved another person the way I loved myself.”
2. “Look your best – who said love is blind?”
3. “Love thy neighbor – and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it will be that much easier.”
4. “All discarded lovers should be given a second chance, but with somebody else.”
5. “Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache.”
6. “Love isn’t an emotion or an instinct – it’s an art.”
Mae West Quotes About Goodness
1. “I like a man who’s good, but not too good – for the good die young, and I hate a dead one.”
2. “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.”
3. “A hard man is good to find.”
4. “Too much of a good thing can be taxing.”
5. “When I’m good, I’m very good. But when I’m bad I’m better.”
Mae West, More Quotes And Sayings
1. “Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.”
2. “His mother should have thrown him out and kept the stork.”
3. “I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.”
4. “It ain’t no sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don’t break any.”
5. “I’m a woman of very few words, but lots of action.”
6. “I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.”
7. “I’m no model lady. A model’s just an imitation of the real thing.”
8. “One and one is two, and two and two is four, and five will get you ten if you know how to work it.”
9. “If I asked for a cup of coffee, someone would search for the double meaning.”
10. “Any time you got nothing to do – and lots of time to do it – come on up.”
11. “Keep a diary, and someday it’ll keep you.”
12. “Say what you want about long dresses, but they cover a multitude of shins.”
13. “I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.”
14. “I’d like to see Paris before I die. Philadelphia will do.”
15. “It takes two to get one in trouble.”
16. “I enjoyed the courtroom as just another stage but not so amusing as Broadway.”
17. “Virtue has its own reward, but no sale at the box office.”
18. “Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I’m tired.”
19. “I speak two languages, Body and English.”
20. “I like restraint if it doesn’t go too far.”
21. “Right now I think censorship is necessary; the things they’re doing and saying in films right now just shouldn’t be allowed. There’s no dignity anymore and I think that’s very important.”
22. “Marriage is a great institution, but I’m not ready for an institution.”
23. “It is better to be looked over than overlooked.”
24. “It’s hard to be funny when you have to be clean.”
25. “I see you’re a man with ideals. I better be going before you’ve still got them.”
26. “I’ve been things and seen places.”
27. “Sex is emotion in motion.”
28. “Opportunity knocks for every man, but you have to give a woman a ring.”
29. “I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.”
30. “I’ve been in more laps than a napkin.”
31. “Save a boyfriend for a rainy day – and another, in case it doesn’t rain.”
If you would like to know more about her life journey, we would suggest you read Goodness had nothing to do with it: The autobiography of Mae West.